BILL REQ. #:  H-0428.1 

Read first time 01/24/2003.   Referred to Committee on Criminal Justice & Corrections.

     AN ACT Relating to assault as a predicate for felony murder; amending RCW 9A.32.050; creating a new section; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that the 1975 legislature unambiguously stated that any felony, including assault, can be a predicate offense for felony murder. The intent was clear to punish, under the applicable murder statutes, persons who commit a homicide in the course and in furtherance of a felony. The legislature reaffirms that original intent and further intends to endorse the decisions of the supreme court over the past twenty-eight years correctly interpreting "in furtherance of" as requiring the death to be sufficiently close in time and proximity to the predicate felony. The legislature does not agree with or accept the court's findings of legislative intent in State v. Andress, Docket No. 71170-4 (October 24, 2002), and reasserts that assault has always been and still remains a predicate offense for felony murder in the second degree under the statute. To prevent a misconstruction of the legislature's original intent and the law, the legislature finds in light of State v. Andress, Docket No. 71170-4 (October 24, 2002), that it is necessary to add language to RCW 9A.32.050 in order to make the original meaning of the statute and the intent of the legislature as clear as possible. This language is intended to be instructive in nature. The legislature urges the supreme court to apply this interpretation retroactively to July 1, 1976.

Sec. 2   RCW 9A.32.050 and 1975-'76 2nd ex.s. c 38 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A person is guilty of murder in the second degree when:
     (a) With intent to cause the death of another person but without premeditation, he or she causes the death of such person or of a third person; or
     (b) He or she commits or attempts to commit any felony, including assault, other than those enumerated in RCW 9A.32.030(1)(c), and, in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants; except that in any prosecution under this subdivision (1)(b) in which the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, if established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence, it is a defense that the defendant:
     (i) Did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid the commission thereof; and
     (ii) Was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article, or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury; and
     (iii) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article, or substance; and
     (iv) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.
     (2) Murder in the second degree is a class A felony.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.