Dawnta Harris v. State, No. 1515, September Term, 2019, Opinion by Graeff, J.

CRIMINAL LAW — — MANSLAUGHTER BY VEHICLE — PREEMPTION

Relying on State v. Gibson, 4 Md. App. 236 (1969), and Blackwell v. State, 34 Md. App. 547 (1977), appellant argues that the manslaughter by vehicle statute, now codified as Md. Code Ann., Article § 2-209 (2012 Repl. Vol.), preempts a charge of felony murder when a motor vehicle is involved. Gibson and Blackwell found preemption in situations involving “unintended resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle.”

Felony murder, however, is not an unintended . To be sure, intent to kill is not a required of felony murder. For a homicide to constitute murder, however, the homicide must be committed with , a mental state that includes an intent to do the “death-producing act in the course of the commission, or attempted commission, of a felony.” Under the felony-murder rule, “the malice involved in the underlying felony is permitted to stand in the place of the malice that would otherwise be required with respect to the killing.” Felony murder is not, therefore, within the scope of an unintended homicide. Accordingly, felony murder is not preempted by the manslaughter by automobile statute when the homicide involves a motor vehicle.

CRIMINAL LAW — JUVENILLE LIFE SENTENCING — FELONY MURDER — INDIVIDUALIZED CONSIDERATION — CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT

Pursuant to this Court’s decision in Hartless v. State, 241 Md. App. 77 (2019), a sentencing court is not required to conduct an individualized hearing to consider a defendant’s “youth and all of its attendant circumstances” before imposing a of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole on a juvenile convicted of felony murder.

Appellant’s sentence of life with parole was not grossly disproportionate and did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment where his conduct, in driving over a person while fleeing the scene of a , caused the person to lose her life. Circuit Court for Baltimore County Case No. 03-K-18-002254

REPORTED

IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS

OF MARYLAND

No. 1515

September Term, 2019

______

DAWNTA HARRIS

v.

STATE OF MARYLAND ______

Graeff, Kehoe, Zic, JJ. ______

Opinion by Graeff, J. ______

Filed: July 28, 2021

On May 1, 2019, Dawnta Harris, appellant, was convicted by a in the Circuit

Court for Baltimore County of first-degree felony murder, first-degree burglary, and less than $25,000. These convictions were based on his actions on May 21, 2018, when he struck and killed a Baltimore County Police officer with a stolen car during the commission of a burglary with three other individuals. Appellant, who was 16 years old at the time of the , was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

On appeal, appellant presents the following questions for this Court’s review, which we have rephrased slightly, as follows:

1. Has an unintentional, common law felony murder that was perpetrated by the operation of a motor vehicle been preempted by statute, thus precluding the common law offense from serving as a basis for a crime in Maryland?

2. Did the circuit court abuse its discretion and commit a constitutional violation by declining to instruct the jury that, in determining the voluntariness of app