Felony murder laws—which hold people criminal culpable for deaths they did not directly cause—have long been controversial. Supporters say that such laws are an important tool for deterring risky criminal conduct. Detractors maintain, by contrast, that felony murder laws enable grossly disproportionate punishment. What has largely eluded the debate so far is empirical evidence: how do prosecutors use felony murder laws on the ground? What patterns do we see, in aggregate, in the charging and conviction of felony murder by contrast to other crimes? This project uses Connecticut’s prison population — the roughly 175 people currently serving time for felony murder — as a window into these questions.

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