Decided February 28 1969 Chief judge Roger J. Traynor | End date 1969 | |
Full case name The People v. Patrick Ireland Citation(s) 70 Cal.2d 522
450 P.2d 580
75 Cal.Rptr. 188
40 A.L.R.3d 1323 Prior action(s) 70 Cal. Rptr. 381 (reversed) Associate Judges Mathew Tobriner, Raymond E. Peters, Stanley Mosk, Raymond L. Sullivan, Louis H. Burke, Marshal F. McComb Majority Sullivan, joined by Traynor, Peters, Tobriner, Mosk, Burke Court Supreme Court of California | ||
People v. Ireland, 70 Cal.2d 522 (1969), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of California that first introduced the merger doctrine in that state.
Decision
The defendant shot his wife with two .38 caliber bullets and killed her. The defendant was convicted of second degree murder after jury instructions were given that included an instruction on the felony murder rule. The California Supreme Court reversed the conviction based on the merger doctrine. The court reasoned that the underlying assault merged with the resulting homicide in the sense that the homicide did not require a felonious purpose independent of that that required for the assault.
References
People v. Ireland Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA