The felony murder rule is a legal doctrine that expands the definition of murder and makes criminal accomplices (including a lookout or getaway driver) as responsible for a death that occurs in the course of a dangerous felony crime as the person who directly caused the death by pulling the trigger of a gun, stabbing the victim with a knife, strangling the victim, or otherwise causing the victim’s death. Examples of dangerous felony crimes that implicate the felony murder rule include robbery, burglary, rape, aggravated kidnapping, carjacking, and arson.

When the felony murder rule applies, it may make a criminal accomplice liable for murder even if the criminals had agreed that no one would be killed in the course of the crime, and even if it is a fellow criminal who is killed in the course of the crime—such as when a police officer or security guard shoots a bank robber—which may result in all other accomplices to the crime being charged with murder.

In many states the felony murder rule—and any distinctions between the culpability of accomplices and principals to a crime—are located in the state’s statutes—often in the penal or criminal code.

In Alabama, the felony murder rule is codified in the Alabama Code under Section 13A-6-2(a)(3). This rule stipulates that a person commits murder if they are engaged in or are an accomplice in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing or attempting to commit a felony, and, in the course of and in furtherance of the crime that they are committing or attempting to commit, or in immediate flight from the crime that they are committing or attempting to commit, another person is killed. The list of felonies that can trigger the felony murder rule in Alabama includes, but is not limited to, arson, burglary, escape, kidnapping, rape, robbery, and terrorism. The rule applies regardless of the intent to kill, and accomplices can be held as responsible for the death as the person who directly caused it. This means that even if the death was accidental or unintended, or even if it was a co-felon who was killed, participants in the felony can be charged with murder under this doctrine.