Did the Amended Information and jury instructions omit an element of the charged offense?
[9] Satter was charged under SDCL 22-16-7 (1972 codification), which provided: Homicide is murder when perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual. [10] Satter claims the Amended Information was in error for two reasons: the offenses were called second degree murder, which was not known in 1972, and there was no indication that to be convicted of depraved mind homicide, the act had to be committed “without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual.”{1} He also claims the jury was incorrectly instructed on the elements of the crime because jury instructions did not indicate lack of intent as a separate element of depraved mind murder. [11] Satter did not object to the Amended Information or the jury instruction on elements of the crime. “Ordinarily, ‘[f]ailure of a court to correctly or fully instruct t
