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Massachusetts Court Changes Definition Of Felony Murder

BOSTON (AP) — The highest court in Massachusetts has overturned the first-degree murder convictions of a man who provided the gun used in a double homicide but who was not present when the victims were shot.

The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling Wednesday narrows the definition of the state's felony murder law, which said anyone involved in a crime in which someone is killed can be charged with first-degree murder.

The court vacated Timothy Brown's first-degree murder convictions and ordered second-degree murder convictions be entered in their place.

That makes Brown eventually eligible for parole.

The court said while Brown should be held liable for the 2009 shooting of two brothers during a home invasion, he participated on the "remote outer fringes" of a robbery plot and second-degree murder convictions are "more consonant with justice."

(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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