California considers limiting broad `felony murder` law
(World News USA)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Brandon Hein was 18 when he and three other teenagers were charged in the 1995 stabbing death of the 16-year-old son of a Los Angeles police detective. One of Hein`s friends pulled a knife during a fistfight over marijuana. James Farris III died; Jason Holland testified that he committed the stabbings in a backyard clubhouse, but Hein was also sentenced to life in prison under California`s `felony murder` rule that holds accomplices to the same standard as if they had personally committed the crime. Hein became a cause celebre almost immediately for those who thought his sentence too harsh, the subject of sympathetic webpages and a 2003 segment on CBS News` `60...