Merger Rule

The merger doctrine is the third limit we will discuss concerning the felony murder rule. The merger doctrine addresses the following problem. Imagine a person negligently kills another person. Negligent homicide is a felony, and someone died as a result of that felony. That would trigger the felony murder rule, and the defendant would now be guilty of second degree murder. In fact, all negligent homicides would become second degree murder, because negligent homicide is of course an inherently dangerous felony. Negligent homicide would no longer be its own crime.

The same issue arises with assault. If a person assaults another, and that other person dies, the defendant would now be guilty of felony murder and therefore second degree murder, even though they only had the mens rea for the assault. 

The merger doctrine solves this problem by disallowing assault or negligent or reckless homicide from being the predicate felony for felony murder. It does so via the following test: is the defendant’s primary purpose in carrying out the felony separate from causing the injury that leads to death? Some states such as Georgia and Minnesota do not have this rule.

Below are a few brief exercises and examples to help.