California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Patterson, 262 Cal.Rptr. 195, 49 Cal.3d 615, 778 P.2d 549 (Cal. 1989):
Implied malice, for which the second degree felony-murder doctrine acts as a substitute, 8 has both a physical and a mental component. The physical component is satisfied by the performance of "an act, the natural consequences of which are dangerous to life." (People v. Watson (1981) 30 Cal.3d 290, 300, 179 Cal.Rptr. 43, 637 P.2d 279.) The mental component is the requirement that the defendant "knows that his conduct endangers the life of another and ... acts with a conscious disregard for life." (Ibid., internal quotation marks omitted.)
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