Opinion ID: 1847059
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the trial court committed reversible error when it constructively amended the indictment, in violation of the state and federal constitutions, by instructing the jury on depraved heart murder when the indictment only accused chris of deliberate design.

Text: ¶ 19. Slater admits that this Court has disposed of this very issue in Catchings v. State, 684 So.2d 591 (Miss.1996), but urges this Court to overrule that holding. This Court declines that invitation. This Court has held that: As a matter of common sense, every murder done with deliberate design to effect the death of another human being is by definition done in the commission of an act imminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart, regardless of human life. Our cases have for all practical purposes coalesced the two so that Section 97-3-19(1)(b) subsumes (1)(a). Mallett v. State, 606 So.2d 1092, 1095 (Miss.1992) (citations omitted). This assignment of error is, therefore, also without merit. ¶ 20. CONVICTION OF MURDER AND SENTENCE OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT IN THE CUSTODY OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AFFIRMED. PRATHER, C.J., SULLIVAN, P.J., and BANKS, McRAE, JAMES L. ROBERTS, Jr., SMITH, MILLS and WALLER, JJ., concur.