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The title is sort of asks the full question, but to elaborate.

Presume I've previously been arrested for marijuana possession, in which case my possession of the marijuana would constitute a felony.

Since my friend gave me the marijuana he would be an accomplice to this felony.

Felony murder, as I understand it, would include the death of an accomplice while in the act of committing a felony, even if it was accidental. So by my naive understanding, it would seem this scenario would technically qualify as a murder.

Am I interpreting the law correctly, or is there some other element required to qualify? If I am, it seems anyone selling marijuana in states where it's 'legal' could be risking murder charges if the government ever decided to get particularly nasty and luck was not on their side.

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    I think a better example might be if he hands you a marijuana edible, and is then shot amd killed by another drug dealer for dealing on their turf.
    – nick012000
    Commented Sep 9 at 21:52
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    As a layman reading the first paragraph on wikipedia about felony murder, I suspect there's a clear difference between "gets killed" and "dies of natural causes". In case of a heart attack, there might be some play to determine if you had any cause in frightening him to the point he suffered from one.
    – infinitezero
    Commented Sep 10 at 8:01
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    This makes more sense if you asked if YOU handed your friend the drug and they died from taking it. I don't see how YOU could get in trouble if they died from their own possession.
    – Ojonugwa Jude Ochalifu
    Commented Sep 10 at 13:52
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    @OjonugwaJudeOchalifu my thinking exactly. IANAL, but it just seems to me, for the proposition 'If my friend does X, will I be guilty of Y', there are very limited options for Y for which it holds true, usually related to negligence or failing to report a crime
    – crizzis
    Commented Sep 10 at 16:18
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    All you need to understand is that the edibles are too big of a liability for you. You should entrust your entire inventory to me instead. (Inventory may decrease over time, on account of... risk reduction measures.)
    – Mentalist
    Commented Sep 11 at 7:46

2 Answers 2

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Short Answer

If a friend hands me a marijuana edible then dies of a heart attack am I guilty of felony murder?

No.

Long Answer

Felony-murder is defined by statute on a state by state basis in 46 states, usually, but not always, as a way of causing a murder conviction to be eligible for the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and as a way of casting a broader net of criminal responsibility than a criminal conspiracy charge. The extent to which a death must have a causal nexus with the felony varies from state to state.

But, "felony-murder" is almost always narrower than the plain language of the name of offense would suggest. Usually, felony murder is limited to deaths occurring in a handful of particularly serious enumerated crimes, and not to all felonies. Drug offenses are rarely included in the list of felony-murder offenses. Similarly, felony-murder almost never includes fraud offenses, bribery, immigration violations, felony drunk driving, or felony tax offenses.

For example, in Colorado, the predicate offenses for felony-murder are committing or attempting to commit arson, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, sexual assault, or a class 3 felony sexual assault on a child. Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-3-103.

There is some variation in the list of predicate offenses, but Colorado is fairly typical. The Model Penal Code, which was used as a starting point for drafting many modern state criminal codes, with a great deal of local variation in the particulars of punishments and offenses, lists robbery, rape or forcible deviant sexual intercourse, arson, burglary, and felonious escape as predicate felonies upon which a charge of felony murder can be maintained. The federal criminal code lists killings "committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery; or perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against a child or children." 18 U.S.C. § 1111.

There are a separate class of crimes that some states have adopted that treat deaths caused by illegal drugs as homicides committed by the dealer of those drugs. But the fact pattern in the question does not suppose that the heart attack is actually caused by the drug in question, unlike a case where the marijuana edible might be cut with fentanyl which causes an overdose death that was not anticipated by the buyer of the illegal drugs. See, e.g., here.

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    And in many jurisdictions, the death of an accomplice is not included in felony murder.
    – Michael Lorton
    Commented Sep 11 at 21:56
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    This is a good answer. Felony Murder is intended to serve to discourage people from engaging in felonies that are likely to result in grievous harm or death. If Felony Murder worked for all felonies, then uttering a forged check on which someone gets a paper cut (oops) that gets infected with MRSA resulting in death would be felony murder. Clearly, such an absurd result could not have been intended by the legislature.
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Sep 12 at 2:37
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    @RobertColumbia FWIW, felony murder is already an offense that not infrequently does lead to absurd results (e.g. a death penalty murder conviction for someone who was arrested and in a squad car dozens of miles away at the time of the kill, or life in prison without parole for a woman trying to retake her things from her boyfriend's apartment when people helping her unexpectedly get out of control), which isn't to say that the basic intuition of your comment doesn't have some heuristic merit.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Sep 12 at 15:56
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No. What made you think you might be?

If a friend hands you gun or a knife or a noose then dies of a heart attack, are you guilty of anything?

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    The question explains the line of thought fairly clearly.
    – ave
    Commented Sep 12 at 12:17
  • @ave Sorry and if that were true, you would fairly clearly be able to rephrase it, and prolly more than one way. In fact your own hoped-for interpretation might, but the OQ as Posted does not make anything clear. Why not explain how anything in the OQ is different from how anyone handing you a gun, a knife or a noose then dying of a heart attack could render you guilty of anything?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Sep 13 at 21:38

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