FMR is a legal theory under which a person is charged with first-degree murder if any death (even an accidental one) results from the commission of certain felonies such as arson, robbery, burglary, etc. All participants in the felony can, and most likely will, be held equally liable – even those who did no harm, had no weapon, and had no intent to hurt anyone. FMR eliminates the prosecutor’s burden of proving intent or premeditation to kill – elements which must be proven for first-degree murder – thus making it the easiest murder conviction for a prosecutor to win.

First-degree murder is a killing committed with the purpose and specific intent to kill based on willfulness, deliberation, and premeditation. Intent to kill must be proven for conviction of first-degree murder. A Felony Murder Rule conviction requires only the proof of intent to commit the underlying felony.

Thousands of men and women in California prisons are suffering, hopelessly, sentences of life without the possibility of parole due to this inhumane law. The majority of people convicted under the felony murder rule were emerging adults whose still-maturing brains hindered the ability to fully anticipate consequences. Many had no history of criminal involvement. Eighty percent of women serving life without parole under felony murder were victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

The felony murder rule was conceived in England in 1716 and brought to the United States in the early 1800's. California enacted the felony murder rule in 1872. This law is so unjust that England abolished it in 1957. Only two of the fifty United States have abolished it - Hawaii and Kentucky. Aside from Australia, where the felony murder rule is used in a very limited way, the United States is the only country in the world that applies it broadly and with exceptionally serious legal consequences.

As of December 2024, there were 35,389 people serving life sentences in California. At the cost of $133,000 to house one prisoner for one year,

California taxpayers spend $4.7 billion dollars a year housing those serving life sentences alone.