Quote Quoting L-1
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I'm going to disagree with everyone.

The homeowner may use reasonable force to subdue and tie up the burglar. In effect, the homeowner has made a citizen's arrest and the burglar is in custody. Once that is done, the crime of burglary has ceased and the felony murder rule no longer applies to the burglar.

Now, we do not allow vigilante justice. So, if the homeowner attempts to strangle the tied up and helpless burglar, we have a new and fresh crime of attempted murder, where the burglar is the victim and the homeowner is the perpetrator. In this case, if the burglar were to somehow break free, he may use whatever force is reasonably necessary to defend his life, up to and including deadly force.

dang, using your argument it couldn't be felony murder if the tied up perp kicked the owner and owner fell and hit their head causing death due to some misplaced belief perp has now become victim.

The problem is, absent overwhelming evidence, no one is going to believe the burglar. So, if the homeowner is just injured and lies about what happened, the charges will be upped to include robbery. If he dies, the felony murder rule will be imposed on the assumption that the homeowner died during the commission of the burglary. In any case, it will be up to the burglar to prove in court that he was the true victim.

I would suggest this scenario is better off as a plot for a TV show.


I'll give you a more fun example of the lack of perps right to use deadly force to defend themselves (in my state)

House invasion. both have guns. Owner tells perp; I'm going to kill you.

Does perp have a right to defend himself? Not in my state he doesn't. He is there unlawfully and has triggered the owners right to kill him. He has no argument of self defense here. His only legal action that would prevent the owner from killing him would be to fully submit to the owners demand to leave or disarm.

But I disagree with your argument felony murder is gone once the perp is tied up. He is still there illegally therefor the crime has not ended. If the owner falls and hits his head and dies, his death is still during the commission of the crime.


As to perp defending himself; He obviously does not have to submit to being murdered so there is a point where the home owner has become the criminal but once the perp has stopped the owners attack his right to act ceases. So now we have home invader in my house that is not tied up so I can shoot him.

The attack by the owner changes the dynamics but once the burglar is freed, if he does not leave he is again the bad guy and owners rights to defend their home are active again.