DataIdaho  

*These factors track the process--i.e. the effort and obstacles--for obtaining data from individual states under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and appeals process. These factors do not measure the quality of the data; only the process of attempting to obtain the data.

• 1 day

  Although Idaho took just one day to respond to our FOIA request

• Zero Laws

  The Excel file included no information about the actual laws under which any of the incarcerated individuals were sentenced.

Although we attempted to use publicly available web portals to identify individuals incarcerated under felony murder, as in most other states, Idaho does not have a statute specifically codifying felony murder, which would make it easier to identify and isolate felony murder conviction data. Instead, as in most other states, felony murder is defined with its other murder statute and the publicly available conviction and sentence information did not distinguish felony murder from other murder convictions.

We appealed the FOIA results and asked for more specific data related to felony murder, but they failed to provide any data additionally specific to felony murder.

In Idaho, felony murder is defined in the first degree murder statute (Idaho Code Ann. § 18-4003).

Prosecutors can charge and convict any person of murder without having to prove that they intended to cause another person’s death. Prosecutors must only prove that a person committed another specified felony and that a death occurred. See State v. Lundquist, 134 Idaho 831, 835 (2000) (“With regard to felony-murder, the element of malice aforethought is satisfied by the fact that the killing was committed in the perpetration of a felony.”).

A conviction for felony murder carries possible sentences of life, life without the possibility of parole, and death.