angry_slav_esq

angry_slav_esq t1_jak4gvh wrote

Lawyer here! I too would like to hear the response of a Georgia lawyer who practices criminal law. First, it appears that the defendant has just been charged with misdemeanors. Without a felony charge, the Georgia felony murder statue does not come into play.

Here is the Georgia murder statute. Look at (c). Takeaway from this, obviously, have to commit a felony and cause a death.

Here is a succinct blog article on felony murder in Georgia. Takeaways from this, you can get a felony murder charge from the death of a co-defendant.

Here is a recent article in which a Georgian defendant was charged with felony murder and vehicular manslaughter in a case where street racing occurred. The person who died was the opponent driver. A key difference in this case is that both the defendant and deceased fled the police prior to the crash that lead to the death. Fleeing or attempting to elude may be the felony used to charge felony murder in this analogous case. It could also be an instance where the prosecutor is overcharging.

I’ve spent too much time thinking about this and should eat dinner…so…

Tl; dr: maybe? There is a recent analogous instance where someone was charged with felony murder stemming from a race where the opponent racer died. I’m not sure what felony they’d charge to get to felony murder in the present case. Reckless driving and racing appear to be capped as misdemeanors in GA. I think you should ask a lawyer.

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