Murder in the second degree
Applied in 75 court decisions — leading case McCoy v. State (2002)
Most recently applied in Dedrick Brigance v. State of Arkansas (March 2026)
Acts 1975, No. 280, § 1503; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-1503; Acts 1989, No. 856, § 3; 2005, No. 1532, § 1.
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(1) A person commits murder in the second degree if: The person knowingly causes the death of another person under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life; or
(2) With the purpose of causing serious physical injury to another person, the person causes the death of any person.
(3) Murder in the second degree is a Class A felony.
Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.