Is deliberate intent an essential element of the definition of second degree murder?

At trial, defendant requested an instruction that would have defined "deliberately acted" in terms drawn from the first degree murder instruction on premeditation and deliberation.⁷ The court correctly rejected defendant's proposed instruction. "Deliberate intent . . . is not an essential element of murder, as such. It is an essential element of one class only of first degree murder and is not at all an element of second degree murder." (People v. Valentine (1946) 28 Cal.2d 121, 131-132.) "Malice aforethought as required in second degree murder is not synonymous with the term deliberate as used in defining first

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degree murder. [Citation.] To hold otherwise would obliterate the distinction between the two degrees of murder." (People v. Washington (1976) 58 Cal.App.3d 620, 624.)