SB 5001 - DIGEST

(DIGEST AS ENACTED)

Finds that the 1975 legislature clearly and unambiguously stated that any felony, including assault, can be a predicate offense for felony murder.

Reaffirms that original intent and intends to honor and reinforce the court's decisions over the past twenty-eight years interpreting "in furtherance of" as requiring the death to be sufficiently close in time and proximity to the predicate felony.

Declares that 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.