## Facts

- William Henry Jackson and James Wells, Jr. robbed a jewelry store operated by Bernard Sugar and Charlotte Farber.
- Police surrounded the store’s entrances shortly after the robbery began.
- To escape, Wells held Farber in a headlock with a gun to her neck, and Jackson similarly restrained Sugar, using both victims as human shields.
- The defendants fled in a stolen automobile while still armed and while holding the hostages.
- During the chase, the defendants positioned the hostages in the vehicle in a manner that exposed them to gunfire from pursuing police.
- Police, unaware hostages were in the vehicle, fired at it; a pursuing officer’s shotgun accidentally discharged, killing Sugar.
- The defendants were charged with first-degree murder under Maryland’s felony-murder statute, predicated on robbery and kidnapping.
- Both defendants pleaded guilty to first-degree murder; they challenged the pleas, asserting the factual basis did not establish felony-murder guilt.

## Issues

1. Whether, under Maryland’s felony-murder statute, felons committing robbery and kidnapping are guilty of first-degree murder when a police officer accidentally kills a hostage during an attempted apprehension.
2. Whether the plea record provided a sufficient factual basis to accept guilty pleas to first-degree felony murder.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed the first-degree murder convictions.
- The court held the accidental killing by the police officer was attributable to the defendants under the felony-murder statute.
- The court held the plea record established a sufficient factual basis because it showed a clear and direct causal relationship between the defendants’ felonies and Sugar’s death.

## Legal Principles

- Under Maryland’s felony-murder statute, a homicide committed “in the perpetration of” designated felonies (including robbery and kidnapping) is first-degree murder.
- Felony-murder liability may attach to a killing by a third party, including law enforcement, when the felons’ conduct bears a clear and direct causal relationship to the death.
- A third party’s act is not an intervening cause defeating felony-murder liability when the fatality is a foreseeable result of the dangerous situation created by the felons during commission of, or flight from, the felony.
- For acceptance of a guilty plea, the record must show a strong factual basis supporting each element of the offense as charged.

## Conclusion

Because the defendants’ armed hostage-taking and flight created a foreseeable, lethal confrontation that directly led to the accidental police shooting, the homicide occurred in the perpetration of the underlying felonies and supported first-degree felony-murder liability; the guilty pleas were properly accepted and the convictions affirmed.


Jackson v. State, 408 A.2d 711 (Md. 1979)