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Jeffries v. State5/14/2004
a provision-- § 210.2(1)(b)--that declares a homicide to be murder if "it is committed recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life". [FN5] The drafters of the Model Penal Code intended this provision to apply to "[the] kind of reckless homicide that cannot fairly be distinguished [in terms of blameworthiness] from homicides committed purposely or knowingly". [FN6] As explained in the Commentary to this provision of the Model Penal Code,
FN5. Quoted in Neitzel, 655 P.2d at 332.
FN6. American Law Institute, Model Penal Code and Commentaries (1980), Part II, § 210.2, p. 21, quoted in Neitzel, 655 P.2d at 335.
[R]isk [is always] a matter of degree[,] and the motives for risk creation may be infinite in variation[.] ... [If] the actor's conscious disregard of the risk, given the circumstances of the case, so far departs from acceptable behavior that it constitutes a "gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person would observe in the actor's situation ...", [this culpable mental state is] sufficient for a conviction of manslaughter.... In a prosecution for murder, however, the [Model Penal] Code calls for the further judgment [of] whether the actor's conscious disregard of the risk, under the circumstances, manifests extreme indifference to the value of human life.... Whether [the actor's] recklessness is so extreme that it demonstrates [extreme] indifference [to the value of human life] is not a question ... that can be further clarified. It must be left directly to the trier of fact under instructions which make it clear that [a] recklessness that can fairly be [likened] to purpose or knowledge should be treated as murder and that less extreme recklessness should be punished as manslaughter.
American Law Institute, Model Penal Code and Commentaries (1980), Part II, § 210.2, pp. 21-22. [FN7]
FN7. Quoted in Neitzel, 655 P.2d at 335-36.
This provision of the Model Penal is the source of our "extreme indifference" provision, *189 AS 11.41.110(a)(2). [FN8] After reviewing the statutory history of this language, we concluded in Neitzel that the Alaska Legislature intended AS 11.41.110(a)(2) to apply to cases where the defendant "knowingly engage[s] in conduct ... which[,] in light of the circumstances [,] is reckless to the point that it manifests an extreme indifference to the value of human life". [FN9]
FN8. Id. at 335.
FN9. Id. at 332-33.
The word "reckless" in that last sentence is used in its technical sense--i.e., the sense defined in AS 11.81.900(a)(3). When Neitzel was litigated, the State argued that the phrase "extreme indifference to the value of human life" referred to "an objective standard" of dangerousness, and that this concept was therefore "similar to negligence rather than ... recklessness" in the sense that the State did not have to prove the defendant's subjective awareness of the risk. [FN10] This Court rejected the State's interpretation of the statute; we held that "extreme indifference to the value of human life" is an extreme form of recklessness, not an extreme form of negligence. [FN11]
FN10. Id. at 332. Compare AS 11.81.900(a)(3) (the definition of "recklessly") with AS 11.81.900(a)(4) (the definition of "criminal negligence").
FN11. Neitzel, 655 P.2d at 334.
Neitzel lists four factors that a jury should weigh when deciding whether a defendant's conduct manifested "recklessness" or "extreme indifference to the value of human life": the "social utility of the actor's conduct", the "magnitude of the risk [that the defendant's] conduct create[d], including both the nature of the foreseeable harm and the likelihood that the conduct [would] result in that harm"; "the [extent of t
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