Also known as: felony murder merger rule · felony-murder-merger rule · merger doctrine · felony murder merger
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A common-law doctrine that treats solicitation, attempt, and conspiracy as misdemeanors that merge into the completed felony when the principal offense is carried out by the defendant or another actor.
Bob and Jeffrey agreed to divert medications and Bob solicited Gavin to assist. Gavin later completed the diversion using a different method. The completed felony absorbs the preliminary solicitation and conspiracy charges, barring separate convictions on the inchoate offenses.
A defendant assaults a child causing death. The assault felony merges into the homicide because it is an integral part of the killing. The felony-murder rule cannot apply because the underlying felony lacks independence from the homicide.
A defendant conspires with others to rob a store and the robbery is completed. The conspiracy merges into the completed felony. Separate punishment for the conspiracy is barred once the principal offense occurs.
In the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri a jury convicted petitioner on two counts under the Hobbs Anti-Racketeering Act. Count I charged conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extorting money and Count II charged the substantive offense of obstructing commerce by extortion. The district court imposed consecutive twelve-year terms on each count but suspended the sentence on Count II and replaced it with a five-year probation term to commence upon expiration of the Count I sentence. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. Petitioner then filed a motion in the district court under Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and 28 U.S.C. § 2255 seeking correction of the sentence. He asserted that the Act established a maximum penalty of twenty years for obstructing interstate commerce by any means and that Congress had not intended to authorize two separate penalties. The district court denied relief. It held that the Hobbs Act gave no indication of any departure from the usual rule allowing cumulative punishment for conspiracy and the substantive crime that was its object. Petitioner appealed the denial to the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's judgment. The Supreme Court granted certiorari because it deemed the question raised by petitioner of sufficient importance.
View caseDefendants agree to commit a felony and one participant completes it. The conspiracy merges with the completed crime. The merger prevents cumulative convictions for both the agreement and the finished offense.
The case began when eight petitioners, together with seven unindicted coconspirators and six codefendants, were tried in the Western District of Pennsylvania under a six-count indictment that alleged federal gambling offenses. Each petitioner faced charges of conspiring to violate and of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1955, a statute that makes it a federal crime for five or more persons to conduct, finance, manage, supervise, direct, or own a gambling business prohibited by state law. At trial the evidence showed that the petitioners owned and operated a large-scale illegal numbers game violating state law. The jury convicted each petitioner of both the substantive offense under § 1955 and the conspiracy offense under 18 U.S.C. § 371. The trial judge then imposed sentences on both counts for every petitioner. On appeal the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the conspiracy convictions. It reversed the substantive convictions, however, because the evidence failed to prove that each petitioner had conducted a gambling business involving five or more participants. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider whether Wharton's Rule barred the conspiracy convictions.
View caseThe rule prevents treating preliminary inchoate conduct as a separate felony once the principal offense is completed by any connected actor.
Yes. The common law merger doctrine applies when any actor connected to the inchoate conduct completes the principal offense, even if the defendant did not personally finish it.
Once the principal offense is completed, the conspiracy merges into the felony. Separate convictions on the conspiracy are barred to avoid multiple punishments for a single course of conduct.
…offense in one provision, § 1951, manifested an intent not to punish commission of two offenses cumulatively. Unlike the merger doctrine, petitioner’s position does not question that the Government could charge a conspiracy even when the substantive crime that was its object had been completed. His concern is with the…