Imagine this: you’re sitting in a car, unarmed, waiting for a friend who said they were going to steal something from a store. The plan is simple — they go in, grab what they can, and you drive away. You never step inside. You never touch anyone. You don’t have a weapon. But inside, things go wrong. A struggle breaks out, someone panics, and a person is killed.

When police arrive, they don’t just arrest the person inside. They arrest you too. And even though you never laid a hand on anyone, the law says you are just as guilty of murder as the person who caused the death.

In New York State, that is not hypothetical. That is the felony murder rule, a law that allows someone to be convicted of murder even if they didn’t kill anyone, didn’t intend for anyone to die, and didn’t know a death would occur. All it takes is being involved in certain felonies where a death happens, even accidentally.

Most people don’t know this law exists. When they hear the word murderer, they picture someone who chose to take a life. They don’t picture an unarmed getaway driver, or a teenager who agreed to be the lookout, or someone who panicked and ran before the violence even happened. But under New York’s felony murder statute, all of these people can receive the same sentence as the person who pulled the trigger, including life in prison.

I know this not because I read it. I know it because I am living it.

“I’m the one who killed that lady and I set her house on fire. Devin stayed outside.”

— Jennifer Molyneaux, sworn statement to police, August 2, 2014

I did not write those words. They came from the person who committed the killing — first in a video-recorded, and later again, in a signed, sworn statement to police. In both versions, she made it clear: she was the one who caused the death. She was the one who went inside. She was the one who carried out the violence. She confirmed that I stayed outside and never put my hands on anyone.

Her confession did not change the charge. It did not change the sentence. It did not change the label the law placed on me: murderer.

I was 19 years old when I was arrested. I was charged with second-degree murder even though everyone involved — police, prosecutors, and the court — knew I did not kill anyone. I did not enter the house. I did not plan or intend for anyone to be harmed. I was outside when the death occurred. But under New York’s felony murder rule, none of that mattered.

Because I was present during a felony that resulted in a death, I was treated the same as the person who caused it — not because of what I did, but because of where I was.

I am not claiming to be innocent. I made a series of bad decisions that I take responsibility for. But there is a difference between being responsible for a crime and being a murderer. That is the difference the felony murder law erases.

I did not cause the death, but the law said I was a murderer anyway. And for that, I was sentenced to 20 years to life, a longer sentence than the person who admitted to causing the death. Under the felony murder rule, I was punished more severely not because of my actions, but because of how the law works.

What happened to me is not rare. It is how this law is designed to work.

One of the biggest problems with the felony murder rule is not just that it sends people to prison for killings they didn’t commit — it’s that it treats very different actions as if they were all the same. The law does not distinguish between the person who caused the death and the person who was simply present. It does not recognize degrees of responsibility. It turns every role into the role of the killer.

Here are two real-life examples of how this works:

The Unarmed Getaway Driver

A friend asks you to drive them to a store so they can steal something. You wait in the car with the engine running. You never go inside. You don’t know they brought a weapon. You don’t know anyone will be hurt. Inside, the robbery goes wrong. Someone panics. A clerk is shot and killed.

Under felony murder, the law does not treat you as a driver. It treats you as a murderer — even though you never touched a weapon, never entered the store, and never agreed to violence.

The Lookout in a Burglary

A teenager stands outside a house to warn the others if someone returns. The plan is to steal electronics. He has no weapon. He never goes inside. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt. But inside, one of the older men surprises the homeowner and strikes him. The homeowner dies.

The lookout did not kill anyone — yet he can be charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison, the same as the person who delivered the fatal blow.

In any other area of law, intent and action matter. But under felony murder, they are erased. The person who plans the violence and the person who never intended harm receive the same label and the same sentence.

This is not justice. It is simplicity masquerading as fairness. And my case is one of thousands where this law has replaced individual responsibility with automatic guilt.

We are not asking for people to escape accountability. We are asking for a law that recognizes the difference between participating in a crime and committing a killing. New York’s felony murder statute removes that difference and replaces it with a single, automatic label — murderer — even when the facts say otherwise.

Reforming this law does not mean excusing violence. It means sentencing people for what they actually did, not for what someone else did. A just legal system should distinguish between levels of responsibility the same way every other area of law does — from traffic violations to tax fraud. Only felony murder treats everyone the same, no matter their role, intent, age, or knowledge.

We are calling on New York lawmakers to:

1. Amend the felony murder statute so a person can only be convicted of murder if they directly caused a death, intended for a death to occur, or could reasonably foresee one.

2. Create a resentencing process for the thousands already serving extreme sentences under a law that never measured their actual actions.

People should be held accountable — but accountability should not erase the truth.
A person who never took a life should not be sentenced as if they did.

If you believe justice should be based on actions, not assumptions, add your name. Share this petition! Help change a law that punishes everyone like a killer, even when the law itself admits they are not.