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THE DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE MURDER JURY INSTRUCTION DID NOT PROPERLY EXPLAIN THAT DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE IS THE DEFENDANT’S MENTAL STATE AT THE TIME OF THE CRIME, NOT THE OBJECTIVE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE HOMICIDE OCCURRED; APPELLATE COUNSEL WAS INEFFECTIVE FOR FAILING TO RAISE THE ISSUE; WRIT OF CORAM NOBIS GRANTED AND NEW TRIAL ORDERED (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department (1) granted the writ of coram nobis based upon appellate counsel’s failure to raise the issue, and (2) ordered a new trial on the second degree murder charge because the jury instruction on depraved indifference was defective. Although the issue was not preserved, the Third Department considered it in the interest of justice:

Defendant asserts that County Court’s instructions to the jury regarding depraved indifference murder were consistent with the overruled objective standard set forth in People v Register (60 NY2d 270 [1983] …), and therefore the court’s instructions failed to explain the requisite culpable mental state as required by People v Feingold (7 NY3d 288 [2006]). We agree. In discharging its duty to deliver a charge to the jury, “[a] court must instruct the jury regarding both the ‘fundamental legal principles applicable to criminal cases in general’ and those ‘material legal principles applicable to the particular case’ ” (… CPL 300.10 [1], [2]). At the time of defendant’s trial, the Court of Appeals had already held that “depraved indifference to human life is a culpable mental state” … . As a result, “under Feingold, it is not the circumstances under which the homicide occurred that determines whether [a] defendant is guilty of depraved indifference murder, but rather [the] defendant’s mental state at the time the crime occurred” … .

Upon our review of the record, which reflects that County Court had twice instructed the jury with the overruled objective standard, “the jury charge did not unambiguously state that depraved indifference was the culpable mental state for the crime with which defendant was charged, [and therefore] we cannot conclude that the jury, hearing the whole charge, would gather from its language the correct rules which should be applied in arriving at a decision” … . People v Weaver, 2023 NY Slip Op 02352, Third Dept 5-4-23

Practice Point: The depraved indifference jury instruction was similar to the overruled objective standard requiring a new trial. Depraved indifference is the defendant’s mental state at the time of the crime, not the circumstances of the commission of the homicide.

Practice Point: Although the issue was not preserved, appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise it on appeal. Here the writ of coram nobis was granted, the conviction reversed and a new trial ordered.

 

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