United States law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well a ...

, depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is a type of murder where an individual acts with a "

depraved ''Depraved'' is a 2019 American horror film written and directed by Larry Fessenden and starring David Call and Joshua Leonard. It is a modern version of Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''. Plot Suffering from PTSD following his stint as an arm ...

indifference" to human life and where such act results in a death, despite that individual not explicitly intending to kill. In a depraved-heart murder, defendants commit an act even though they know their act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to a person. If the risk of death or bodily harm is great enough, ignoring it demonstrates a "depraved indifference" to human life and the resulting death is considered to have been committed with

malice aforethought Malice aforethought is the "premeditation" or "predetermination" (with malice) required as an element of some crimes in some jurisdictions and a unique element for first-degree or aggravated murder in a few. Insofar as the term is still in use, ...

.'' Commonwealth v. Malone''
354 Pa. 180, 47 A.2d 445
(1946). In some states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder,Bonnie, R.J. et al. ''Criminal Law, Second Edition.'' Foundation Press, New York, NYL 2004, p. 797 while in others, the act would be charged with "wanton murder", varying degrees of manslaughter, or third-degree murder. If no death results, such an act would generally constitute

reckless endangerment Endangerment is a type of crime involving conduct that is wrongful and reckless or wanton, and likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm to another person. There are several kinds of endangerment, each of which is a criminal act that can ...

(sometimes known as "culpable negligence") and possibly other

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

s, such as assault.

Common law background

It depraved heart" murderis the form
f murder F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...
that establishes that the wilful doing of a dangerous and reckless act with wanton indifference to the consequences and perils involved is just as blameworthy, and just as worthy of punishment, when the harmful result ensues as is the express intent to kill itself. This highly blameworthy state of mind is not one of mere negligence... It is not merely one even of gross criminal negligence... It involves rather the deliberate perpetration of a knowingly dangerous act with reckless and wanton unconcern and indifference as to whether anyone is harmed or not. The common law treats such a state of mind as just as blameworthy, just as anti-social and, therefore, just as truly murderous as the specific intents to kill and to harm.''Robinson v. State'',
07 Md. 738, 517 A.2d 94
(1986), quoting ''DeBettencourt v. State''
48 Md. App. 522, 530, 428 A.2d 479, 484
(Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1981)

The

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

punishes unintentional homicide as murder if the defendant commits an act of gross recklessness. A classic example of depraved-heart murder under the common law is in the case '' Commonwealth v. Malone'', a Pennsylvania case in which the court affirmed the second-degree murder conviction of a teenager for a death arising from a game of modified Russian roulette in which each player pointed and fired the gun at the other, eventually resulting in the death of one of them.

Under the Model Penal Code

Depraved-heart murder is recognized in the

Model Penal Code The Model Penal Code (MPC) is a model act designed to stimulate and assist U.S. state legislatures to update and standardize the penal law of the United States.MPC (Foreword). The MPC was a project of the American Law Institute (ALI), and was pu ...

§ 210.2(1)(b).American Law Institute Model Penal Code (Official Draft, 1962) The Model Penal Code considers unintentional killing to constitute murder when the conduct of the defendant manifests "extreme indifference to the value of human life".

International equivalents

Canada

The Canadian

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

categorises murder as first- and second-degree for sentencing purposes. However, the Supreme Court of Canada held that murder requires, at minimum, subjective knowledge that death is a likely consequence of the defendant's actions.

R v Martineau ''R v Martineau'', 9902 SCR 633 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada case on the ''mens rea'' requirement for murder. Background One evening in February 1985, Patrick Tremblay and 15-year-old Mr. Martineau set out to rob a trailer owned by the M ...

, 9902 SCR 633. Section 229(a)(ii) of the Canadian Criminal Code is most closely analogous to depraved-heart murder, applying where the defendant intended to cause bodily harm to the deceased that he subjectively knew was likely to cause death, and was reckless as to the risk of death.

England and Wales

Murder is not classified into degrees in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

, unlike in Canada, but sentences are more severe (always

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

, but with a longer period when the offender is ineligible for

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

) in cases where there are more aggravating than

mitigating factor In criminal law, a mitigating factor, also known as an extenuating circumstance, is any information or evidence presented to the court regarding the defendant or the circumstances of the crime that might result in reduced charges or a lesser sente ...

s. Murder requires intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm; recklessness as to harm will not suffice. In a case where death results from recklessness, the defendant will be guilty of manslaughter.

Germany

A similar concept is , also called ''dolus eventualis'' or ''bedingter Vorsatz'' (literally: "conditional intent"). Under this concept, a court can treat the result of a criminal act as intentional if the defendant did not explicitly intend this result, but realized it was likely and knowingly accepted this risk. While ''Eventualvorsatz'' can apply to any crime, it is usually only applied in cases involving bodily harm or murder. Typical cases where courts recognized ''Eventualvorsatz'' (in this case for murder) include setting fire to an inhabited house and reckless speeding in an urban area.

Well-known cases

1946 Russian roulette case

In the 1946 case, '' Commonwealth v. Malone'', the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

affirmed the conviction of a teenager on the charge of

second degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

using the depraved-heart doctrine. The teenager in question had set up a game of Russian roulette which ended in the death of another teenager, a friend of the defendant. When tried for the crime of murder, his defense argued that since he had no intent to kill, the defendant could not be convicted of murder. The

prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

successfully argued using the depraved-heart doctrine that his recklessness and carelessness amounted to a level of negligence sufficient to serve as evidence of criminally culpable intent.

2015 death of Freddie Gray

Caesar Goodson, Jr., a

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

police officer, was charged on May 21, 2015, with second-degree depraved heart murder for his alleged involvement in the death of 25-year-old

Freddie Gray On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., a 25-year-old African American, was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department over his legal possession of a knife. While being transported in a police van, Gray sustained injuries and was taken to ...

while in police custody. Gray died several days after he was arrested and driven in a police van to jail. The van was shown on video during the trial to have been driven normally, but was alleged to have been driven aggressively with no regard for the safety of the prisoner, who was not adequately secured for safety. Further, the prisoner was shackled, preventing him from protecting himself. The prosecution alleged that the injuries were inflicted during the ride and that pleas for medical attention were ignored. Officer Goodson was charged with second-degree depraved-heart murder before the internal investigation was completed. He was found not guilty on June 23, 2016. Of the six officers charged, three were acquitted, and charges were dropped against the remaining three.

Murder of George Floyd

The

Murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's ...

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

man, occurred in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

on May 25, 2020. Derek Chauvin, a

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

Minneapolis police officer, kept his knee on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, 2 minutes and 53 seconds of which occurred after Floyd became unresponsive, according to the criminal complaint filed against Chauvin. Floyd was handcuffed and lying

prone Prone position () is a body position in which the person lies flat with the chest down and the back up. In anatomical terms of location, the dorsal side is up, and the ventral side is down. The supine position is the 180° contrast. Etymolog ...

on the road throughout that time. Officers Thomas K. Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kueng participated in Floyd's arrest, with Kueng holding Floyd’s back, Lane holding his legs, and Thao looking on as he stood nearby. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder under Minnesota law on May 29, 2020. Chauvin was convicted of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, while the other officers pled guilty for various charges related to the murder.

References

{{reflist American legal terminology Killings by type Murder in the United States