Involuntary Manslaughter and Criminal Negligence
August 7th, 2015
People v. Butler (2010) 187 Cal. App. 4th 998, 1014, upheld CC 580 as follows:
The trial court’s adherence to the formulation of the instruction in [CC 580] adequately informed the jury of the criminal negligence standard applicable to all three forms of involuntary manslaughter. As [previously stated by the Court of Appeal] ‘an act is criminally negligent when a man of ordinary prudence would foresee that the act would cause a high degree of risk or great bodily harm.’ This is essentially the same standard provided to the jury by the trial court; i.e., the defendant committed involuntary manslaughter if the ‘defendant committed a crime that posed a high risk of death or great bodily injury because of the way in which it was committed.’
Tags: CC 580, Criminal Negligence, Homicide, Involuntary Manslaughter