I posted the Alabama murder statute in #14. Please read carefully and comment on its applicability to the present case.
The sticky part will be proving that the other folks “commit[ted] or attempt[ed] to commit” the crime of robbery. If there’s a “joint enterprise” instruction available in Alabama, it might work, but I don’t know that “mere” conspiracy to commit robbery would get them there. Driving the getaway car would be an act in furtherance of the conspiracy, and might also qualify them as “participants” in the robbery.
Your thoughts?
My brief research on Alabama law found no direct cases where an accomplice was murdered by a victim. The following commentary, which seems to indicate that the other defendants cannot be prosecuted, is from the Lexis notes under the Alabama Murder statute:
The primary judicial qualification of the rule has taken the form of a requirement of proximate or “natural and probable” causation. Commonwealth v. Bolish, 113 A.2d 464 (Pa. 1955) (not murder if intervening and superseding act breaks chain of events). People v. Stamp, 82 Cal. Rptr. 598 (1970) (foreseeability of death not essential).
Another aspect of felony-murder is when does it commence and terminate? Does the felony continue for purposes of the rule after its commission but during escape? How long does escape continue? The courts have treated the matter differently. See Kadish & Paulsen, Criminal Law and Its Processes 341 (2d ed. 1969). The majority follows the “continuous transaction” test. People v. Stamp, supra.
Some jurisdictions have imposed liability only when the defendant or his accomplice committed the actual act that caused the death but not to situations where the act causing death was that of another person. Commonwealth v. Redline, 137 A.2d 472 (Pa. 1958) (accomplice killed by policemen; felony-murder inapplicable). People v. Washington, 402 P.2d 130 (Cal. 1965) (accomplice killed by victim).
There is a paucity of Alabama cases on felony-murder: Kilgore v. State, 74 Ala. 1 (1884) (robbery); Hardley v. State, 202 Ala. 24, 79 So. 362 (1918) (burglary or robbery). There is some dicta for the conclusion that homicide occurring during a felony not enumerated by the statute as first degree murder would be second degree murder: Fields v. State, 52 Ala. 348 (1875); Davis v. State, 246 Ala. 101, 19 So.2d 358 (1944); Miller v. State, 145 Ala. 677, 40 So. 47 (1906) (1st degree murder for death of prison guard by dynamite blast; probably “universal malice”).