Opinion ID: 174346
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: New York's Depraved Indifference Murder Statute

Text: New York's depraved indifference murder statute provides that a person is guilty of murder in the second degree when: Under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes the death of another person. N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(2). At the times of petitioners' trials, and at the times that each of their convictions became final, recklessness was the required mental state for depraved indifference murder. People v. Register, 60 N.Y.2d 270, 274, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704 (1983). Depravity and indifference were assessed by the jury, based on its review of the circumstances of the crime. Id. at 274-75, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704. In other words, a jury was required to evaluate the facts attendant to the crime, and the defendant's behavior in committing the crime, to make a determination as to whether those facts and behavior evinced a depraved indifference to human life. As the New York Court of Appeals explained, it was within the jury's province to make a qualitative judgment whether defendant's act was of such gravity that it placed the crime upon the same level as the taking of life by premeditated design. It had to determine from the evidence if defendant's conduct, though reckless, was equal in blameworthiness to intentional murder. Id. During the relevant time period, depraved indifference referred to objective circumstances surrounding the offenses committed. Id. at 276, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704. And, the definition of depraved indifference murder was well understood. Id. at 279, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also People v. Johnson, 87 N.Y.2d 357, 361, 639 N.Y.S.2d 776, 662 N.E.2d 1066 (1996); People v. Cole, 85 N.Y.2d 990, 992, 629 N.Y.S.2d 166, 652 N.E.2d 912 (1995). In Register, which governs petitioners' appeals, the New York Court of Appeals explained that depraved indifference murder is not and never has been considered as a substitute for intentional homicide. 60 N.Y.2d at 279, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704. Moreover, it reasoned, depraved indifference murder is distinguishable from manslaughter ... by the objective circumstances in which the act occurs. Id. at 278, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704. Subsequent to petitioners' convictions becoming final, this interpretation of the depraved indifference murder statute changed. The New York Court of Appeals overturned its prior precedent and held that depraved indifference to human life is a culpable mental state. People v. Feingold, 7 N.Y.3d 288, 294, 819 N.Y.S.2d 691, 852 N.E.2d 1163 (2006). As now understood by the New York Court of Appeals, `a one-on-one shooting or knifing (or similar killing) can almost never qualify as depraved indifference murder.' Policano v. Herbert, 7 N.Y.3d 588, 601, 825 N.Y.S.2d 678, 859 N.E.2d 484 (2006) (quoting People v. Payne, 3 N.Y.3d 266, 272, 786 N.Y.S.2d 116, 819 N.E.2d 634 (2004)). But see People v. Sanchez, 98 N.Y.2d 373, 383, 748 N.Y.S.2d 312, 777 N.E.2d 204 (2002) (observing that requirements that conduct causing death be aimed at no one in particular and must endanger indiscriminately the lives of many were entirely obsolete under then-existing New York law (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted)). Contrary to the assertions of petitioners, this change in construction is of little import in evaluating these petitions for habeas corpus relief based on vagueness, for on habeas review, we must look to New York law as it existed when Mannix and Archer's convictions became final. See Henry v. Ricks, 578 F.3d 134, 141 (2d Cir.2009); see also Policano v. Herbert, 453 F.3d 79, 83 (2d Cir.2006)(Raggi, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc ).