manslaughter hypothetical
Is it considered homicide if an armed robber causes an accidental death? (WV, USA)
<p>My friend posted me this scenario:</p>

<p>An armed man robs a bank. As he's exiting the building, he accidentally bumps into a lady, and her gun misfires, resulting in her hitting her femoral artery and dying. </p>

<p>Is this considered homicide? I assumed that the fact that he created the situation that resulted in her death, it would be manslaughter. </p>

<p>What is the answer?</p>

<p><strong>Can be tried as first-degree murder, actually. See below.</strong></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>felony murder doctrine</p>
  
  <p>n. a rule of criminal statutes that any death which occurs during the
  commission of a felony is first degree murder, and all participants in
  that felony or attempted felony can be charged with and found guilty
  of murder. A typical example is a robbery involving more than one
  criminal, in which one of them shoots, beats to death or runs over a
  store clerk, killing the clerk. Even if the death were accidental, all
  of the participants can be found guilty of felony murder, including
  those who did no harm, had no gun, and/or did not intend to hurt
  anyone. In a bizarre situation, if one of the holdup men or women is
  killed, his/her fellow robbers can be charged with murder.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The crime you are asking about is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_rule" rel="nofollow noreferrer">felony murder</a>. Felony murder has two unique features:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>First, killing someone while committing a felony is automatically considered first degree murder.</p>
<p>Second, everyone who participates, not matter how remotely, in the felony can be charged with first degree murder.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this example, suppose the bank robber had a getaway driver. Because he was part of a felony, he could also be charged with first degree murder under the felony murder doctrine.</p>
<p>Under West Virginia law, felony murder is considered first degree murder. Art. 2, <a href="http://www.wvlegislature.gov/wvcode/code.cfm?chap=61&amp;art=2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§61-2-1</a>, of the West Virginia Code says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Murder...in the commission of…robbery...is murder of the first degree.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>People usually don't run around with a loaded gun in their hand. So this isn't an accident. If you have a gun, you are normally required to keep it separate from the ammunition. If you load it, you have to put the safety on. If you don't put the safety on, you have to handle it very carefully, not runnig round and bumping into people, but having it firmly under your control and not pointing it into the direction of people. This is ridiculously far away from negligence or even gross negligence. </p>

<p>In Germany, it would be murder. You created intentionally a situation where you knew or should have known that people could get hurt or even killed, and you didn't care. You don't have to intend to kill someone, it's enough to knowingly create a dangerous situation and not care that someone could be killed. </p>

<p>In the USA, in many states the fact that someone died as a result of a crime you committed will count as murder. That has included cases where two people committed a (serious) crime and one was killed by a security guard - the other went to court for murder. </p>
