DataMontana  

*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.

• 27

  days to respond to our FOIA request

Montana took 27 days to respond to our FOIA request with a link to their interactive dashboards. Montana’s statutes, however, are not specific for felony murder.

Although we attempted to use publicly available web portals to identify individuals incarcerated under felony murder, as in most other states, Montana 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 within 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 we received no additional support.

In Montana, felony murder is defined in the general murder statute (Mont. Code Ann. § 45-5-102).

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 or their accomplice committed or attempted to commit another specified felony and that a death occurred.

A conviction for felony murder in Montana carries a possible sentence of death, life, or 10-100 years depending on age and other factors.