The article discusses LaKeith Smith’s conviction among other over-broad applications of Alabama’s felony-murder statute. The statute permits murder convictions in cases where the defendant did not kill or intend to kill the victim, but participated in a felony, causing the victim’s death. Field explained how the appellate court’s decision in Witherspoon expanded the felony-murder statute beyond its plain language to impose criminal liability in situations like Smith’s, where the victim is the defendant’s co-felon, killed by police.
In the Media
Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Adam Lankford recently published a study on the 2016 Dallas and Baton Rouge cop killers, who committed two of the worst targeted attacks on American police officers in recent history — within eleven days of each other.