Parish House Resources

The felony murder rule is a law used in some states that says if a murder is committed during a felony that murder can become a first degree murder charge even if there is no premeditation. In 2006 the Iowa Supreme court made a ruling in the Heemstra case on the felony murder rule that stated for the felony murder rule to be used the felony had to be a separate crime then the murder itself. For example if you pull a gun and point it at someone that is a felony, but if you then shoot and kill that person you can not be charged with the felony murder rule because the actions are not separate. If however you are say robbing a liquor store and then shoot and kill the clerk the felony of robbing the store is a separate crime and the rule can be used to convict that person of first degree murder.

When the Iowa Supreme court realized however that this ruling could possible cause hundreds of people to go free they quickly decided to make a revision to there ruling. They then ruled that this new interoperation of the felony murder rule would only be used on the Heemstra case, all future cases, any case that was currently on appeal, but not for any old cases. Basically they said the new rule would not be retro active.

How can two people convicted of the exact same crime be treated completely different? One can get involuntary man slaughter and get ten years in prison while the other can get a life sentence for doing the exact same thing. Of course the original Heemstra case involved a white farmer and the majority of the people who the Iowa Supreme Court decided that this rule could not also help are black. Iowa leads the nation in black to white prisoner ratio and they obviously intend to keep it that way. I just hope that there are some good Iowa criminal defense attorneys working on this case so that this outrageous injustice can be stopped.