4 states of mind for malice afterthought: 1) Intent to kill 2) Intent to cause grievous bodily harm 3) Depraved heart murder 4) Strict liability for homicide committed during the commission of a felony. State v. Schrader Facts: (D) went into a gun store trying to trade and buy antique weaponry. Upon an allegded argument with the owner he stabbed him 51 times with a hunting knife and killed him. Issue: How “pre” is premeditated? Rule: To constitute a willful, deliberate and premeditated killing, it is not necessary that intention to kill should exist for any set length of time prior to actual killing; it is only necessary that such intention should have come into existence for first time at time of killing or at any time previously. When West Virginia legislature adopted Virginia's murder statute in 1868, law was settled that in order to constitute "premeditated" murder an intent to kill need exist only for an instant.
Midgett v. State
Facts: Father beat up his 8 year old and killed him. The trial court convicted him of first degree murder. Issue: Is repeated child abuse that results in the death of a child a form of premeditated murder? Rule: Those accused of first-degree murder must be given the benefit of the requirement that they be shown by substantial evidence to have premeditated and deliberated the killing, no matter how heinous the facts may otherwise be; overruling Evidence only supported conclusion that defendant intended not to kill his son but to further abuse him or that his intent, if it was to kill child, was developed in drunken, heated rage while disciplining child and was insufficient to support either finding of premeditation or deliberation so as to warrant conviction for first-degree murder; however, evidence that defendant's purpose was to cause serious physical injury and that he caused death in the process was sufficient to sustain conviction for second-degree murder.