The article asserts that the legislature did not intend that the misdemeanor conduct be listed as a felony murder crime and provides a discussion of the common law origin and development of felony murder, beginning with sixteenth century English law and including New York law from colonial times to 1967. It notes that in 1967 the New York State legislature incorporated the felony murder doctrine, a part of the statutory law of New York since 1829, into the Revised Penal Law of 1967. The felony murder statute, by imposing strict liability, finds a perpetrator guilty even when the victim's death was unintended or accidental. This runs contrary to the current philosophy of fitting the punishment to the crime. The article discusses law, provides recommendations for the judiciary in interpreting the legislative history of the felony murder statute, and advises that the legislature amend the felony murder statute by omitting the misdemeanors unintentionally included and by specifically enumerating each predicate crime (both substantive and attempted) by name, degree, and section number. 264 footnotes.