## Facts

- Sanexay Sophophone and three others conspired to commit, and committed, an aggravated burglary in Emporia, Kansas.
- Police responded to a reported break-in, encountered four suspects leaving the house, identified themselves, and ordered the suspects to stop.
- All four suspects fled.
- An officer pursued Sophophone, captured him, handcuffed him, and placed him in a patrol car.
- Another officer pursued co-felon Somphone Sysoumphone, confronted him at gunpoint, and ordered him to the ground.
- While face down, Sysoumphone поднялся and fired at the officer; the officer returned fire and killed Sysoumphone.
- It was undisputed that the fatal shot was fired by the officer and that the officer acted in self-defense while performing duties to apprehend the fleeing suspect.

## Issues

1. Whether a defendant may be convicted of felony murder under K.S.A. 21-3401(b) when a co-felon is killed by a police officer’s lawful act of self-defense during apprehension.
2. Whether the felony-murder statute’s “killing” element is satisfied where the fatal act is legally justified and committed by a non-felon.
3. Whether felony-murder liability applies when the defendant had been captured and placed in a patrol car before the co-felon was shot.

## Decision

- The Kansas Supreme Court reversed Sophophone’s felony-murder conviction.
- The court held that a felon may not be convicted of felony murder for the death of a co-felon when the death is caused solely by a law enforcement officer’s lawful act of self-defense in the course of apprehending the fleeing co-felon.
- The court left undisturbed Sophophone’s other convictions (conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, aggravated burglary, and obstruction), which were not appealed.

## Legal Principles

- Criminal statutes are strictly construed in favor of the accused; reasonable doubt about statutory meaning is resolved against extending criminal liability.
- Kansas felony murder under K.S.A. 21-3401(b) requires a “killing” committed in the commission of, attempt to commit, or flight from an inherently dangerous felony; the doctrine should not be extended beyond its deterrent and evidentiary purposes.
- A legally justified homicide by a police officer acting in self-defense is not treated as the type of homicidal act that can be imputed to felons for felony-murder purposes when the decedent is a co-felon.
- Felony-murder causation theories include (1) an agency approach limiting liability to killings by the felon or an accomplice and (2) a proximate-cause approach extending liability to deaths proximately resulting from the felony; this case rejects imposing felony-murder liability for a co-felon’s death caused by lawful police self-defense.

## Conclusion

The court held that felony-murder liability does not attach when a co-felon is killed by a police officer’s lawful act of self-defense during apprehension, and it reversed the defendant’s felony-murder conviction on that basis.


State v. Sophophone, 270 Kan. 703, 19 P.3d 70 (Kan. 2001)