Decision by Fitzgerald Ruling court Michigan Supreme Court | End date November 24, 1980 | |
Full case name People of the State of Michigan v. Stephen J. Aaron Decided November 24, 1980 (1980-11-24) Citation(s) 299 N.W.2d 304, 409 Mich. 672 Appealed from Michigan Court of Appeals Judges sitting Kavanagh • Williams • Coleman • Levin • Fitzgerald • Ryan • Moody | ||
People v. Aaron, 299 N.W.2d 304 (1980), was a case decided by the Michigan Supreme Court that abandoned the felony-murder rule in that state. The court reasoned that the rule should only be used in grading a murder as either first or second degree, and that the automatic assignment of the mens rea of the felony as sufficient for the mens rea of first degree murder was indefensible.
Michigan is unique among states that have abolished the felony-murder rule entirely in doing so by judicial decision; this was acceptable because, unlike most other states, the felony-murder rule, and indeed the definition of murder itself at the time, was pure common law, i.e. inherited from English judge-made law.
References
People v. Aaron Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA