State v. Spears

Kenneth Spears is guilty of a heinous crime: causing the death of two persons, including a five-year-old girl, by the intoxicated and reckless operation of a motor vehicle. I would not hesitate to impose the maximum penalty the law allows for his offense. But in which offense-slot does his conduct fit? The state charged Spears with second-degree murder, sec. 940.02, Stats. Spears acknowledges he is guilty of reckless homicide, sec. 940.06. Because it is debatable whether Spear’s conduct, heinous as it was, evinced a depraved mind, regardless *449of human life, a necessary element of second-degree…