People v. Collins

Summary

The California Supreme Court held that the evidence was insufficient to support Brittney Collins’s second degree murder conviction under either a direct aider-and-abettor theory or a direct-perpetrator failure-to-protect theory. Although a parent’s omission may support criminal liability, implied-malice murder based on failure to protect requires proof that the parent knew to a substantial degree of certainty that a life-endangering act was occurring or about to occur and nevertheless failed to act in conscious disregard of life. The court reversed the Court of Appeal’s judgment and directed that Collins’s murder conviction be vacated and that she be resentenced.