People v. Hernandez
604 N.Y.S.2d 524, 82 N.Y.2d 309, 624 N.E.2d 661 (1993)
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Rule of Law:
Under New York's felony murder statute, a defendant can be found guilty if their actions during the commission of a felony are a sufficiently direct and foreseeable cause of a person's death, even if the fatal act is committed by a non-participant, such as a police officer.
Facts:
- Defendants Santana and Hernandez planned to ambush and rob a man they believed was a drug buyer in an apartment building.
- The plan involved Santana luring the man into a stairwell where Hernandez was waiting with a gun.
- The intended victim was an undercover State Trooper, who was wearing a transmitter and had a police backup unit nearby.
- Hernandez confronted the Trooper at gunpoint, and a struggle ensued during which the Trooper identified himself as police and began firing his weapon.
- Hernandez fled the building into a courtyard, where he was confronted by the police backup unit.
- When ordered to halt, Hernandez aimed his gun at one of the officers and advanced towards him.
- The police backup unit opened fire on Hernandez.
- During the gun battle, Trooper Joseph Aversa was fatally shot in the head by a bullet that was not fired by either Hernandez or Santana.
Procedural Posture:
- Defendants Santana and Hernandez were tried before separate juries in the state trial court.
- Both defendants were convicted of felony murder and other charges.
- Defendants appealed their convictions to the Appellate Division, an intermediate appellate court.
- The Appellate Division affirmed the convictions.
- Defendants were granted leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals of New York, the state's highest court.
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Issue:
Does a conviction for felony murder under New York Penal Law § 125.25 (3) stand when the fatal shot was fired not by the defendant or a co-felon, but by a police officer during a gun battle initiated by the defendant's actions?
Opinions:
Majority - Simons, J.
Yes. A conviction for felony murder under New York Penal Law § 125.25 (3) can be sustained because the statutory phrase 'causes the death' encompasses a proximate cause theory, holding a felon liable for a foreseeable death that is a sufficiently direct result of their actions, even if the fatal act is committed by a non-participant. The court rejected the 'agency theory' of felony murder, which would require the killer to be one of the felons. The court reasoned that the Legislature's 1965 revision of the Penal Law, which replaced language requiring the killing to be done 'by a person engaged in the commission of' a felony with the phrase 'causes the death,' was intentional. This new language aligns felony murder with other homicide statutes in New York, which use a 'sufficiently direct cause' standard of causation as established in People v. Kibbe. The court found that it was highly foreseeable that a gun battle would erupt and someone could be killed when Hernandez, while fleeing an armed robbery, refused to surrender and instead threatened police officers with a firearm. Therefore, Hernandez's actions were a sufficiently direct cause of Trooper Aversa's death, and both he and his accomplice, Santana, are liable.
Analysis:
This decision definitively establishes that New York follows a proximate cause theory for felony murder liability, rejecting the more restrictive agency theory adopted by many other jurisdictions. By doing so, the Court of Appeals expanded the scope of felony murder, holding that felons can be responsible for any death that is a foreseeable consequence of their criminal conduct, regardless of who pulls the trigger. This precedent clarifies that the key inquiry is causation and foreseeability, not the identity of the person who commits the final fatal act. The ruling ensures that felons whose dangerous actions set a deadly chain of events in motion cannot escape liability for murder simply because a victim or police officer fired the fatal shot.
