People v. Cravens

KENNARD, J., Dissenting.

Someone who unlawfully kills a person without deliberately intending to do so is guilty of second degree murder if the act resulting in death is done with implied malice, which means the deliberate performance of an act whose natural consequences are dangerous to life, with knowledge that the act endangers the life of another.

Here, without warning, a right-handed defendant used his left hand to punch a man once in the head, causing the man to hit his head on the *515pavement, fatally injuring him. That incident led to a murder charge. Although the prosecution’s theory at…