“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver on Sunday shone a damning light on the charge of felony murder.“Felony murder is basically a felony plus a death equals a murder charge, even if you didn’t intend to kill anyone and even if you’re not the one who did the killing,” he explained.“Crucially, you don’t have to be an active participant in a killing to get charged with felony murder,” Oliver said. “You don’t even have to be anywhere near it.”He cited one example of a man who lent his roommate his car, which was then used in a robbery that ended with someone being beaten to death. That man is now serving a life sentence.Oliver noted how many states allow death sentences for unintentional killings under felony murder laws, and that 11 people have been executed for such since 1985. “That is 11 people executed for murder despite not killing anyone,” he emphasized.He also highlighted the racial disparities in sentencing, noting how hispanic people in New York “are around 12 times as likely as white people to be convicted, and Black people are more than 34 times as likely.”Oliver concluded that no one is arguing for no consequences and said people should be punished for the crimes they actually commit. “Felony murder really doesn’t address crime at all,” Oliver said. “All it does is throw people in prison for decades for something that they often did not do. All of which really begs the question, ‘What the fuck?’”Watch here:Close