What is the test for a "vague" definition of murder in the first degree?

The common phrasing of the rule argued by the appellants is "where a statute is so vague as to make criminal an innocent act, a conviction under it cannot be sustained." Winters v. People of State of New York, 333 U.S. 507, 520, 68 S.Ct. 665, 672, 92 L.Ed. 840. Such is not the situation here. We here deal with the question of the degree of what must be considered to be a crime in any event.³⁷ When the Massachusetts and Hawaiian legislators fixed upon this concept of murder in the first degree it was obvious that the varieties of extreme atrocity or cruelty which might occur to killers would prevent more precise definition if the statute is to be made to apply to all cases within the contemplation of the legislature. Impossible standards of specificity are not required. United States v. Petrillo, 332 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 1538, 91 L.Ed. 1877. We know of no better general discussion of this question than that to be found in Jordan v. De George, 341 U.S. 223, at pages 231 and 232, 71 S.Ct. 703, 95 L.Ed. 886, including the footnote thereon. We think that the Hawaiian court correctly held that this language is not void for uncertainty.