People v. Roe

I vote to reverse this conviction of a 15-year-old person for the highest degree of criminal homicidal responsibility — depraved indifference murder. The evidence adduced, the statutory scheme under which defendant was charged, and the legislative intent behind it do not support the disproportionate level of maximum blameworthiness imposed here. Moreover, this result finalizes the obliteration of the classical demarcation between murder and manslaughter in this State, not only for juvenile offenders but also for all adult accuseds. As former Chief Judge Breitel so trenchantly observed with…