State v. Young

469 A.2d 1189, 191 Conn. 636, 1983 Conn. LEXIS 622
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedDecember 27, 1983
Docket10792
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 469 A.2d 1189 (State v. Young) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Young, 469 A.2d 1189, 191 Conn. 636, 1983 Conn. LEXIS 622 (Colo. 1983).

Opinions

Shea, J.

After a jury trial the defendant was found guilty of felony murder in violation of General Statutes § SSa-Mc1 and of arson in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-lll (a).2 In his appeal from that judgment he claims error: (1) in the instructions to the jury explaining the phrase “and in furtherance of such crime” as used in § 53a-54c; (2) in the allowance of an amendment during trial to the information charging arson in the first degree; (3) in the charge upon the presumption of sanity; (4) in the denial of a motion to suppress confessions of the defendant claimed to have resulted from his unlawful seizure by the police at his home; (5) in the failure to exclude certain testimony indicating that the defendant was incarcerated before and during trial; and (6) in the failure of his trial attorney to render him effective assistance of counsel. We find no error.

[639]*639There is little dispute about the circumstances of the fire which resulted in the death of one victim and in serious injuries to another. On March 2, 1979, at 11 p.m. the New Haven fire department responded to a report of a fire at a three story apartment building on Hallock Street in New Haven. In the course of extinguishing the blaze, the firemen discovered in the building the body of a three year old child, Keiya McDuffie, whose death had resulted from inhaling smoke and carbon monoxide during the fire. Robert Smith, who occupied one of the apartments, was seriously injured when he jumped from the building to escape the flames. An investigation indicated that the fire had been started by the use of an accelerant, such as gasoline. The defendant, who had been seen near the apartment building just before the fire broke out, ultimately confessed that he had ignited it at the request of the owner, Morris Sacks, who had promised to pay him $10,000 for his services. At the trial the defendant testified in his own behalf, repudiating his confessions and denying any involvement in setting the fire.

I

At the time of the offense General Statutes (Rev. to 1979) § 53a-54c imposed liability for felony murder upon a person “when acting either alone or with one or more persons, he commits or attempts to commit . . . arson . . . and, in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or of flight therefrom, he, or another participant, if any, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants . . . .” The defendant claims that the phrase “and in furtherance of such crime or of flight therefrom” imposes a requirement of mens rea in the [640]*640form of a specific intent or scienter with respect to the death itself. He argues that “furtherance” means “promotion” or “advancement” and does not imply merely a causal relationship between the underlying felony and the death, as the trial court assumed. In charging the jury the court equated “in furtherance of” with “in the natural progression of.”3 The defendant contends not only that the charge was erroneous,4 5but also that his motion for an acquittal should have been granted because of the lack of any evidence that the death of the child victim aided or facilitated the commission of the arson.

Despite the linguistic appeal of the defendant’s argument,6 it ignores both the history and purpose of the “in furtherance” phrase in § 53a-54c. This section of [641]*641our penal code was taken from the New York code6 and deviates substantially from the recommended felony murder provisions of the Model Penal Code,7 the source of many other portions -of both the Connecticut and New York codes. Faced with a claim that “in furtherance of” meant “in aid of” or “in advancement of,” the New York courts have construed the phrase to impose the requirement of a logical nexus between the felony and the homicide. People v. Lewis, 111 Misc. 2d 682, 686, 444 N.Y.S. 2d 1003 (1981). “More than the mere coincidence to time and place . . . the nexus must be one of logic or plan. Excluded are those deaths which are so far outside the ambit of the plan of the felony and its execution as to be unrelated to them.” Id. The phrase was viewed as incorporating into the New York felony murder provision the previous limitation upon the applicability of the felony murder rule adopted in People v. Wood, 8 N.Y.2d 48, 167 N.E.2d 736; 201 N.Y.S.2d 328 (1960). In that case, where the defendant had been indicted for the deaths of an accomplice as well as of an innocent bystander in a gun battle with the police, both of whom were shot by a tavern [642]*642owner who was assisting the police, the court upheld the dismissal of the indictment. “A felony murder embraces not any killing incidentally coincident with the felony . . . but only those committed by one of the criminals in the attempted execution of the unlawful end .... Although the homicide itself need not be within the common design . . . the act which results in death must be in furtherance of the unlawful purpose.” Id., 51.

We agree with the New York courts that the phrase “in furtherance of’ was intended to impose the requirement of a relationship between the underlying felony and the homicide beyond that of mere causation in fact, similar to the concept of proximate cause in the law of torts. Primarily its purpose was to limit the liability of a person whose accomplice in one of the specified felonies has performed the homicidal act to those circumstances which were within the contemplation of the confederates to the undertaking, just as the liability of a principal for the acts of his servant is similarly confined to the scope of the agency. “All who join in a common design to commit an unlawful act, the natural and probable consequence of the execution of which involves the contingency of taking human life, are responsible for a homicide committed by one of them while acting in pursuance of, or in furtherance of, the common design. ...” (Emphasis added.) State v. McCarthy, 133 Conn. 171, 173, 49 A.2d 594 (1946), quoting 29 C. J. 1073; State v. Rossi, 132 Conn. 39, 44, 42 A.2d 354 (1945); State v. Cots, 126 Conn. 48, 59, 9 A.2d 138 (1939).

Prior to the advent of the penal code in 1971, our criminal statutes contained no express provision imposing liability for a homicide committed by an accomplice in the course of a felony. The first degree murder statute included within that classification a killing which [643]*643occurred in the perpetration of any arson, rape, robbery or burglary, or injury to any person or property by means of any explosive compound, but it referred only to the actual perpetrator of the felony. Vicarious liability for such a murder, nevertheless, could be imposed upon an accomplice by virtue of the general accessory liability statute. General Statutes § 54-196; see State v. Leopold, 110 Conn. 55, 63, 147 A. 118 (1929). The “in furtherance” phrase had frequently been used to define the scope of the criminal liability of one participant in a crime for the actions of another or of a principal for conduct of his agent. See State v. McCarthy, supra, 173; State v. Rossi, supra, 44; State v. Cots, supra, 59; cf. Robinson v. Dobbins, 108 Conn. 58, 61, 142 A. 572 (1928); Cooke v. Weed, 90 Conn. 544, 550, 97 A. 765 (1916).

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Bluebook (online)
469 A.2d 1189, 191 Conn. 636, 1983 Conn. LEXIS 622, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-young-conn-1983.