Tell Massachusetts: To Change It's Felony Murder Law -  An Unfair Law in Which Allows Nonviolent Men And Women to Be Sentence To Life In Prison For Someone's elses Actions
   In Massachusetts, there are hundreds of men and women serving life sentences under Massachusetts's felony-murder doctrine. Yet majority of them has never committed a violent act.
   Massachusetts felony murder law allows a person to be convicted and punished to life in prison for murder, although the person was not at the murder scene or they may have been a getaway driver, a lookout, helped planned a lesser felony, or provided clothes and weapons to the primary participant. In all of these scenarios, the person did not intend a death to occur. 
  Under the Commonwealth's general joint venture laws, a defendant cannot be held liable for the additional crimes committed by a co-venturer unless the defendant intended such crimes. However, where the additional crime results in death, the felony murder rule establishes an exception to the rule of joint venture and allows a defendant to be held liable without evidence that the defendant intended to cause the victim's death.
   In Commonwealth v. Brown 477 Mass. 805. (2017), a Lowell, Massachusetts man provided his friends with a hooded sweatshirt and guns. Although he never participated in the felony or witness it, he was sentence to life for murder. The Supreme Judicial Court lowered his sentence to second degree murder which holds life with the possibility of parole. The sentence is still unjust.
   The Justices' in the Brown case modified the felony murder rule, but refused to abolished it. Prosecutors now have to prove one of three prongs 1. He or she intended to kill 2. To cause bodily harm 3. intended to do an act which, in the circumstances known to the defendant, a reasonable person would have known it would created a plain and strong likelihood that death would result.
  Although it has been modified, prosecutors are still charging defendants with felony-murder, arguing the third prong.
   The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court also refuses to make the modification of felony murder retroactive. The notion is: it will open a floodgate releasing criminals who are considered killers back on the streets.
    Though these men and women are not killers. They are people who made the wrong choice, was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and some even backed out from committing the felony but failed to prove it at trial.
   Society has a misconception that men and women who are serving life sentences are the most dangerous. To the contrary, studies have shown these individuals are role model inmates. They are the least to receive any disciplinary sanctions. If release, they would likely have a low recidivism rate.
   Massachusetts refuses to do anything for these men and women, although it is causing millions of tax payer's dollars to keep them incarcerated.   
   Our Massachusetts legislators need to take a page from California.
  In California, the Governor signed Senate Bill 1437, changing their felony murder law. The bill no longer allows the state to convict a codefendant for someone else's intended crime to murder. The bill is retroactive, effecting up to 800 men and  women serving life sentences or facing the death penalty
 Shawn Khalifa, a California man, is a example of how the original felony-murder law is unjust. He stole chocolate from a man's house but had no part in the man's murder. He was sentenced to life. With the passing of S.B. 1437, he will now be able to gain his freedom.
  What we seek is humane and fair. No one deserves to die in prison for another one's actions. Please signed this petition, regardless if you are a Massachusetts resident or live in another State. If California and Massachusetts can pass a bill changing felony murder, it can be a prime example for other States to follow.
   Please help Massachusetts pass a retroactive bill that changes its felony murder law and reform its criminal justice system.