Ex parte Mitchell
Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
936 So. 2d 1094 (2006)
Oronde Mitchell (defendant) and Cedric Tolbert attempted to sell marijuana to Jaquin Jones from inside a vehicle; Jones instead tried to rob them at gunpoint, and Tolbert was killed in the encounter. Mitchell was indicted for felony murder, with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance as the underlying felony supporting that charge. Mitchell moved to dismiss, arguing that distributing drugs is not, in the abstract, an offense clearly dangerous to human life as Alabama's felony-murder statute requires; the circuit court denied the motion, and Mitchell sought a writ of prohibition or mandamus.
Whether the determination of whether an underlying felony is sufficiently dangerous to human life to support felony-murder liability should be made through an abstract, categorical analysis of the offense, or through a fact-based analysis of the specific circumstances of the case.