State v. Mosley, Murder, and Depraved Heart Malice

Darian Mosley’s sentence for second degree murder was vacated last week because the jury did not specify whether he acted with (1) hatred, ill-will or spite, (2) intentionally and without justification, or (3) a depraved heart when he shot and killed his girlfriend, Amy Parker, in April 2013. The court of appeals held in State v. Mosley that, without knowing the theory of malice that supported the verdict, the trial judge erred in sentencing Mosley as a Class B1 felon. The appellate court remanded the case to the trial court with instructions to sentence Mosley for a Class B2 felony. It also recommended actions for trial courts instructing juries in future murder cases. Legal background. Before 2012, the offense of second degree murder was uniformly classified as a Class B2 felony. In 2012, the General Assembly amended G.S. 14-17(b), the second degree murder statute, to classify second degree murder as a Class B1 felony in certain circumstances and a Class B2 felony in others. Two types of second degree murder are punishable as Class B2 felonies: (1) murder based on an inherently dangerous act or omission, done in such a reckless or wanton manner as to manifest a mind utterly without regard for human life and social duty and deliberately bent on mischief; and (2) murder proximately caused by the unlawful distribution of opium or its derivatives. The first category of Class B2 second degree murder involves a state of mind described in short-hand as “depraved heart malice.” This is the [...]