## Facts

- Anthony Campbell and a co-felon entered a taxicab at night and directed the driver to an isolated area.
- The co-felon displayed a gun and demanded money; Campbell urged compliance and indicated he was armed.
- After taking the money, the co-felon directed the driver to continue driving so they could kill him because he had seen their faces.
- The driver stopped near police cars; the co-felon shot the driver, and the driver returned fire.
- Police fired at the fleeing felons; Campbell hid nearby and was apprehended.
- The co-felon died from multiple gunshot wounds; evidence could not determine whether the fatal shots were fired by the driver or police.
- Campbell pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder (based on the co-felon’s death) and related offenses.

## Issues

1. Whether Maryland’s felony-murder doctrine permits conviction of a surviving felon for first-degree felony murder when the person killed is a co-felon and the fatal shots were fired by the victim or police.
2. Whether Maryland follows the agency theory or a proximate-cause theory of felony murder for attributing a killing to felony participants.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Maryland reversed the first-degree felony-murder conviction predicated on the co-felon’s death.
- The court held Maryland follows the agency theory of felony murder.
- Because the co-felon was killed by a non-felon acting against the perpetrators (the victim or police), the killing was not attributable to Campbell under felony-murder principles.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion, leaving unaffected convictions not dependent on the invalid felony-murder theory.

## Legal Principles

- Under Maryland’s felony-murder doctrine (agency theory), felony-murder liability requires that the homicide be committed by the defendant or an accomplice acting in concert and in furtherance of the felony.
- Killings committed by non-felons (including victims or law enforcement responding to the felony) are not treated as killings by the felons’ “agents” for felony-murder purposes.
- Felony murder imputes malice from the intent to commit the underlying felony; because it dispenses with proof of malice, its application is limited to deaths caused by the felon or accomplices during the felony.

## Conclusion

Maryland confines felony-murder liability to killings committed by the felon or an accomplice acting in furtherance of the felony; therefore, a surviving felon cannot be convicted of first-degree felony murder when a co-felon is killed by a victim or police during the felony.


Campbell v. State, 293 Md. 438 (Md. 1982)