Federal Judiciary

INTENT MATTERS
By Mark Thompson
markthomp@yahoo.com
Posted 07-02-08

The Appellate Division has reversed two more convictions handed down by New York City trial judges for depraved indifference murder. They are the latest in a stream of reversals of convictions flowing from a series of Court of Appeals decisions, issued between 2004 and 2006. The rulings narrowed the circumstances under which a defendant can be charged with second-degree depraved indifference murder, a count often used by prosecutors because they can win a hefty sentence against a defendant without proving that he or she intended to kill. 

Full post as published by Judicial Reports on July 02, 2008 (boomark / email).