Abstract
This Comment argues that using a traffic fatality to satisfy the felony-murder rule is inappropriate. When the State prosecutes a DWI fatality under the felony murder rule, it diminishes the concept of an ancient doctrine. If it is the goal of the State to give life sentences or the death penalty for DWI fatalities, then it is the responsibility of the North Carolina General Assembly to enact a statute specifically dictating such punishment rather than the court judicially imposing the punishment through their interpretation of the felony-murder rule.
Recommended Citation
Graham T. Stiles, North Carolina's Unconstitutional Expansion of an Ancient Maxim: Using DWI Fatalities to Satisfy First-Degree Felony Murder, 22 Campbell L. Rev. 169 (1999).