"JURCRM0503

REVISED TO DECEMBER 31, 2001

§ 5.3 FELONY MURDER § 53a-54c

The defendant is charged with the crime of felony murder in violation of § 53a-54c of the Penal Code, which provides as follows: ''A person is guilty of murder when, acting either alone or with one or more persons, he commits or attempts to commit . . . [designate the appropriate underlying felony] and, in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or of flight therefrom, he, or another participant, if any, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants. . . .''

For you to find the defendant guilty of this charge, the state must prove the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) that the defendant, acting alone or with one or more other persons, committed or attempted to commit the crime of [          ]. [Charge on the elements of the underlying felony.]; (2) that the defendant or another participant in the crime of [          ] caused the death of another person; (3) that the defendant or another participant caused the death while in the course of, and in furtherance of the commission or attempted commission of the crime of [          ], or, in immediate flight therefrom; and (4) that the victim was not a participant. A participant is one who takes part or shares in the underlying crime.

By this law, the legislature has provided that when, during the actual commission or attempted commission of [insert felony charged in information] or in the immediate flight therefrom, the perpetrator causes the death of another person, the perpetrator is guilty of felony murder. It does not matter that the act that caused the death was committed unintentionally or accidentally, rather than with the intention to cause death, nor does it matter if the death was the result of the victim's fear or flight. The perpetrator is as guilty when committing this form of murder as he would be if he had intentionally committed the act that caused the death."


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