State v. Yates
South Carolina Supreme Court
310 S.E.2d 805 (1982)
Yates (defendant) and two accomplices set out to rob a general store; Yates and one accomplice, both armed, entered while the third waited elsewhere. Yates shot and wounded (but did not kill) the store owner; the accomplice fatally stabbed the owner's wife and was then killed by the owner. Yates was convicted of murder, armed robbery, assault and battery with intent to kill, and conspiracy, and sentenced to death. He appealed, arguing the death penalty shouldn't apply to him because his accomplice, not he, committed the killing.
Whether a defendant convicted of capital murder because an accomplice killed someone during a felony can be sentenced to death based on the defendant's own conduct during the crime.