On April 29, 2022, Casey White and Vicky White walked out of the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence, Alabama, and began an eleven-day escape together. What sparked this journey depends on who tells the story. Some believe that Casey—an inmate—manipulated Vicky—a corrections officer—into helping him escape using complex coercion tactics. Others liken the story to a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, with the pair having worked in tandem to escape. Because Casey and Vicky’s journey culminated in Vicky’s death, she can corroborate neither narrative. But most accounts of the case share one common theme: a distinct absence of blame cast on Vicky for her part in the events, especially in the wake of her suicide and Casey’s felony murder charge for her death.
Crimes are typically charged to those who personally committed them. The felony murder rule is an always contentious, sometimes celebrated, and extremely complicated exception to that standard of personal accountability. Here, the State charged Casey with felony murder, holding him criminally responsible for Vicky’s suicide. Prosecutors, in a broad stretch of Alabama’s felony murder rule, charged Casey with Vicky’s death. According to Casey’s attorneys and Alabama legal scholars, holding a felon culpable for a co-felon’s death by suicide was unprecedented in Alabama until this case.
This Note explores the concept of felony murder through the lens of these unprecedented charges. Part II introduces the felony murder rule. Sections III.A and III.B trace the history of the felony murder rule from its English common law origins to its evolution in the United States and state felony murder laws. Section III.C examines limitations on felony murder, including agency theory and the merger doctrine. Part IV addresses the specific facts and charges involved in the Casey White case. Part V retraces the Whites’ escape state by state, examining each state’s felony murder statute and other pertinent state laws to determine if each state would allow Casey’s specific felony murder charge. Section VI.A provides examples of misuse of the felony murder rule, often arising out of abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Section VI.B then provides scholarly recommendations for felony murder reform. Finally, Section VI.C recommends each state reevaluate its criminal statutes, eliminate the felony murder rule, and recalibrate other laws to better reflect each state’s policy for felony murder culpability.