California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Cortez, 47 Cal.App.4th 828, 54 Cal.Rptr.2d 841 (Cal. App. 1996):
Except for felony-murder, "first degree murder is distinguished from second degree [express malice] murder by the presence or absence of premeditation and deliberation." (People v. Van Ronk (1985) 171 Cal.App.3d 818, 822, 217 Cal.Rptr. 581; see also CALJIC No. 8.30 [defining unpremeditated murder of the second degree].) It follows that the crime of conspiracy to commit second degree murder contemplates, at most, the "narrow range of cases ... in which conspirators formed an agreement to kill but made that agreement without deliberation and premeditation." (See People v. Swain, supra, 12 Cal.4th at p. 625, 49 Cal.Rptr.2d 390, 909 P.2d 994 (conc. opn. of Kennard, J.).) Swain suggests this range does not exist.
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