People v. Register

After heavy drinking, Register (defendant) shot at Willie Mitchell during a bar argument, instead wounding a bystander, then shot Mitchell in the stomach, and later, without any explanation, shot and killed an acquaintance, Marvin Lindsey. Register did not deny the shootings but presented evidence of severe intoxication; the trial court allowed an intoxication instruction for the intentional-murder and assault counts but refused it for the depraved-mind (second-degree) murder charge tied to Lindsey's killing, since that offense's mental state is recklessness, to which intoxication is not a defense. The jury acquitted Register of intentional murder but convicted him of depraved-mind murder, and he appealed.