| Court: | Wisconsin Supreme Court |
| Facts: | Oimen was the "mastermind" of an attempt to rob a bookie. He drove the truck while two co-conspirators attempted to break into the victim's house to rob him, expecting him to be unarmed. He was actually pretty well armed, and shot one co-felon as he fled. |
| Posture: | Defendant wants felony murder charge dropped; post-conviction motion denied; appeals. |
| Issue: | Do co-felons count as victims for felony murder? Did the judge properly instruct the jury? |
| Holding: | Yes. The statute does not say anything about who gets killed. Also yes: immediate flight counts as being "in the course of the felony." |
| Rule: | Felony murder does not require proof of any mental state: it's strict liablity, and the legislature had no requirement that there be an "agency" relationship, so it's immaterial if the intended victim of the felony was the killer. Also, immediate flight is an essential component of getting away with a crime. |
| Reasoning: | Sort of a tour of felony murder and its history, to show that the omission of who got killed and who did the killing from the statute is intentional, and therefore not part of a defense. |
| Dicta: | |