Adams v. State (1970)

In Adams v. State, 8 Md. App. 684, 262 A.2d 69, cert. denied, 258 Md. 725, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 928, 91 S. Ct. 193, 27 L. Ed. 2d 188 (1970), the Court rejected the argument that the underlying felony must be charged to vest the court with jurisdiction to try a defendant for first-degree felony-murder. Id. at 689-90. In that case, a juvenile was charged with first-degree murder in the circuit court on a theory of felony-murder, under the then-applicable Public Local Laws of Baltimore City, see id. at 690, despite the fact that "there was no waiver by the juvenile court of its jurisdiction over the underlying felony of armed robbery." Id. at 689-90. The Court said, id. at 691: The fact that a murder occurred during the perpetration of one of the felonies enumerated in the statute determines only the degree of the crime and the penalty to be imposed. Proof of facts showing that a robbery was committed is only one of the elements of proof necessary to establish the crime of first degree murder. In effect, there is no difference between proving the felony and proving willfulness, deliberateness and premeditation in a first degree murder case under the statute. . . . There is no necessity for the State to indict and convict the accused of the underlying felony of robbery to sustain a conviction of murder in the first degree.