MBE Rules · Criminal Law
Depraved-heart murder
The rule
A killing that results from conduct manifesting an extreme and reckless indifference to the value of human life constitutes depraved-heart (second-degree) murder. The defendant must consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death; gross negligence alone is involuntary manslaughter, not murder.
In plain English
The classic example is firing a gun into a crowded room or driving 100 mph through a school zone. It is malice by extreme recklessness, not by intent to kill.
Memory hook
Abandoned and malignant heart.
The trap
The line between depraved-heart murder and involuntary manslaughter is awareness of the risk plus its extreme magnitude.
Drill this rule until it can't fail you.
Vrenberg generates unlimited questions on this exact rule, tracks your mastery of it, and brings it back until it sticks.