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PG IV(A) Does Implied Malice Require Specific Intent?
In People v. Alvarado (91) 232 CA3d 501 [283 CR 479] and People v. Ricardi (90) 221 CA3d 249, 256, 261 [270 CR 425], the courts held that murder is a specific intent crime even when based on implied malice. The Alvarado court stated, “malice may be established by showing the specific intent to commit an act from which malice may be implied. [Citations].” (Alvarado 232 CA3d at 505.)
People v. Whitfield (94) 7 C4th 437, 451 [27 CR2d 858], held that implied malice, which requires that the defendant act with knowledge of the danger to, and in conscious disregard of, human life, is closely akin to specific intent. Thus, read in context, the phrase “when a specific crime is charged” in PC 22 includes murder, even where the prosecution relies exclusively upon the theory that malice is implied, rather than express. (See FORECITE F 8.47b.)
[RESEARCH NOTE: See FORECITE BIBLIO 4.20, et al.]