Involuntary Manslaughter – California Law – Penal Code 192b PC

Penal Code 192b PC sets forth California law as to involuntary manslaughter – which is unlawfully causing the death of another person by acting with criminal negligence. A conviction is punishable by up to 4 years in jail or prison and a fine of up to $10,000.00.

The key feature of involuntary manslaughter is that it does not require intent to kill another person—unlike Penal Code 187 PC murder, which requires “malice aforethought.” ^{1 2}

And California’s involuntary manslaughter law does not include actions that fit the definition above but involve a car. Those will be charged under California’s vehicular manslaughter laws.³

Dr. Conrad Murray, the pop star Michael Jackson’s personal physician, is probably California’s most famous involuntary manslaughter defendant in recent years.

Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for prescribing Jackson a surgical anesthetic that eventually killed him. He received a jail sentence of four (4) years—the maximum penalty for involuntary manslaughter.⁴

Examples

• A man steals a bicycle that has been left outside of a store (thus committing the California misdemeanor crime of 484 PC petty theft). As he is riding away on the bicycle, he strikes a pedestrian who eventually dies of her injuries.
• During a fight with her husband, a woman retrieves her gun and waves it at him to threaten him (thus violating Penal Code 417 PC, California’s brandishing a weapon law). The gun accidentally fires, killing the husband.
• A farm owner forces his workers to pick vegetables in record-breaking heat. One of them, a pregnant woman, collapses and dies of heatstroke.
• A woman has a dog that has attacked people on several occasions. She lets the dog run off-leash at a dog park, and the dog mauls another dog owner who is at the park–leading to charges of both involuntary manslaughter and Penal Code 399 PC failing to control a dangerous animal.

Penalties

Involuntary manslaughter is a felony in California law. Potential penalties include

• Two (2), three (3) or four (4) years in jail, and
• A fine of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000).⁵

Defense Strategies

As a California homicide crime, involuntary manslaughter is punished harshly—and is a serious strike on someone’s criminal record. It is worth fighting these charges with all you’ve got.

A California criminal defense lawyer could help you bring some of the following legal defenses against Penal Code 192b charges:

• You acted in self-defense / defense of others;
• The killing was an accident (and not a result of your criminal activity or negligence);
• There is insufficient evidence to support your conviction; and
• You were falsely accused.

In order to help you better understand the crime of involuntary manslaughter, our California criminal defense attorneys will address the following:

• 1. How does California law define involuntary manslaughter?
  • 1.1. Involuntary manslaughter based on legal duty
• 2. What are the penalties for Penal Code 192b PC?
• 3. What are the best defenses to assert?
• 4. Are there related crimes?
  • 4.1. Penal Code 187 murder
  • 4.2. Penal Code 192a voluntary manslaughter
  • 4.3. Penal Code 192c vehicular manslaughter
  • 4.4. Penal Code 191.5 vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated

If, after reading this article, you would like more information, we invite you to contact us at Shouse Law Group.

1. How does California law define involuntary manslaughter?

The legal definition of involuntary manslaughter consists of the “elements of the crime” – facts that the prosecutor must prove for you to be guilty under Penal Code 192b PC. Note that the offense is also sometimes called negligent homicide or accidental homicide.

The elements of California involuntary manslaughter are:

1. You committed a California infraction, a California misdemeanor, a California crime that is not an inherently dangerous felony, OR a lawful act done in an unlawful manner;
2. You committed the crime or act with “criminal negligence”; and
3. Your actions caused another person’s death.⁶

Let’s take a closer look at each of these elements in order to better understand what they mean in practice.

California crime or lawful act in an unlawful manner

California involuntary manslaughter occurs only when the defendant does something wrong—pure freak accidents won’t suffice. The wrongful act can be either:

1. A California infraction (a low-level crime that carries only a fine, such as a traffic violation or Penal Code 415 PC disturbing the peace);
2. A California misdemeanor;
3. A California felony that is not considered “inherently dangerous”; or
4. An act that is not a crime—but is done in an unlawful manner.⁷

If you kill someone in the process of committing a felony that IS “inherently dangerous,” you will not be charged with involuntary manslaughter. You will instead be charged with murder under California’s “felony-murder rule.”⁸

Example: Stanley is a faith healer who has no medical license of any kind. Lee, who is suffering from leukemia, comes to him for treatment. Stanley gives Lee regular abdominal massages that he claims will cure the cancer.

In fact, the massages cause Lee to suffer massive internal bleeding, which kills him.

Stanley killed Lee in the process of committing the crime of unauthorized practice of medicine. This is a felony that is not inherently dangerous. Thus, Stanley is charged with PC 192b involuntary manslaughter.⁹

Criminal negligence

Regardless of whether you are charged with involuntary manslaughter based on an underlying crime or an underlying lawful act, the prosecutor must be able to show that you acted with “criminal negligence.”¹⁰

Criminal negligence is more than just ordinary carelessness, inattention, or mistake in judgment. It occurs only when:

1. A person acts in a reckless way that creates a high risk of death or great bodily injury; and
2. A reasonable person would have known that acting in that way would create such a risk.¹¹

Example: Isabel leaves her four young children home alone when she goes out to a bar. While she is gone, a fire breaks out in her house, killing her youngest child.

Isabel is not guilty of involuntary manslaughter—because her actions were not criminally negligent. The odds of a fire occurring in the house while she was gone were not great, and she could not reasonably have foreseen that death or injury would result from her actions.¹²

Caused another person’s death

Your act is considered to have “caused” another person’s death if their death was the

• direct,
• natural, and
• probable

consequence of your act – AND the death would not have occurred without your act.¹³

This means that a reasonable person would have had to realize that the death was likely to happen.¹⁴

Example: While watching a sports game at a bar, Sam and Jason—who are rooting for different teams—get into an argument.

Thinking it will come off as a silly prank, Sam throws a bowl of peanuts at Jason—thus committing the misdemeanor of California battery.

It turns out that Jason is life-threateningly allergic to peanuts. He has a severe reaction to the peanuts and does not seek treatment quickly enough because he is drunk. He ends up dying at the hospital.

Sam is probably not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, though. This is because Jason’s death was not a natural and probable consequence of tossing a bowl of peanuts at someone.

Note that concealing an accidental death (Penal Code 152 PC) is also a crime in California.

1.1. Involuntary manslaughter based on legal duty

Involuntary manslaughter based on failure to perform a legal duty is a variety of PC 192b involuntary manslaughter. It has a slightly different legal definition.¹⁵

The elements of involuntary manslaughter/failure to perform a legal duty are:

1. You had a legal duty to the victim;
2. You failed to perform that legal duty;
3. Your failure was criminally negligent; and
4. Your failure to perform the duty caused the victim’s death.¹⁶

Whether someone has a “legal duty” to someone else is an issue that is decided by a judge, not a jury, in an involuntary manslaughter case.¹⁷

Examples of relationships that give rise to a legal duty are:

• The parent-child relationship;
• A paid caretaker’s relationship with the person s/he is caring for; and
• The relationship between two people, one of whom has “assumed responsibility” for the other.¹⁸

Example: Carol meets Luke at a bar. He then comes back to her house.

Carol knows that Luke is drunk. He tells her he is going to shoot heroin in her bathroom. After he does so, he collapses. Carol drags him outside to her yard and leaves him there before going to sleep. In the morning, he is dead.

By bringing Luke back to her house when he was drunk, and allowing him to use her bathroom to shoot heroin, Carol created a legal duty to Luke. Because she did not seek medical help for him when he collapsed, she is guilty of involuntary manslaughter.¹⁹

2. What are the penalties for Penal Code 192b PC?

PC 192(b) involuntary manslaughter is always a felony in California. The potential penalties include:

• Felony (formal) probation ;
• Two (2), three (3) or four (4) years in jail; and
• A fine of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000).²⁰

Involuntary manslaughter often triggers a civil lawsuit by the family of the victim as well. When these are successful, involuntary manslaughter defendants can face very large civil judgments.

In addition, if you accidentally kill someone with a firearm or another “dangerous or deadly weapon,” and are found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, then the conviction will be a “strike” offense under California’s “three strikes law.”²¹

3. What are the best defenses to assert?

According to Sacramento criminal defense attorney Neil Shouse²²:

“When someone dies under any kind of ‘suspicious’ circumstances, law enforcement officers and prosecutors are bound to get involved. People want to hold someone responsible. And oftentimes, as a result, they jump to conclusions or rush investigations—leaving innocent people to defend themselves against illegitimate involuntary manslaughter charges.”

Fortunately, there are a variety of legal defenses to California’s involuntary manslaughter law that a skilled California criminal defense attorney can present on your behalf. These include:

You acted in self-defense or defense of others

The legal defense of self-defense/defense of others applies when all of the following are true:

1. You reasonably believed that you or someone else was in imminent danger of being killed, suffering great bodily injury, or being raped, maimed, or robbed;
2. You reasonably believed that the immediate use of deadly force was necessary to defend against that danger; and
3. You used no more force than was reasonably necessary to defend against that danger.²³

If you can prove all of the above facts, then you are not guilty of Penal Code 192b involuntary manslaughter.

Example: Paul and Julio get into an argument outside of a nightclub. Paul begins pushing Julio, and Julio fights back.

Then Paul pulls a knife out of his back pocket and lunges toward Julio. Julio manages to wrest the knife out of his hands and, in doing so, stabs Paul in the chest with it. Paul later dies from his injuries.

Julio could probably avoid an involuntary manslaughter conviction by arguing that he acted in self-defense.

The killing was an accident

All cases of involuntary manslaughter are accidents in some sense, because they generally involve situations where the defendant did not mean to kill the victim.

But if the defendant was not engaged in any wrongdoing—was not acting with “criminal negligence”—then the legal defense of accident can apply to involuntary manslaughter charges.²⁴

For the accident defense, you will want to be able to show that you

1. had no criminal intent to do harm,
2. were not acting with criminal negligence at the time of the accidental killing, and
3. were otherwise engaged in lawful activity at the time of the accident.²⁵

There is insufficient evidence to convict you

Sometimes, in what seems like an “open and shut” involuntary manslaughter case, the police make a snap decision regarding the death. They present their case to the prosecutor, who simply buys into the cops’ account.

This is just one reason why hiring an experienced California criminal defense lawyer to defend against involuntary manslaughter charges is critical.

Skilled criminal defense lawyers conduct their own investigations. They invest the time and resources to interview witnesses, reexamine evidence, and consult with independent forensic scientists to uncover what really happened.

You were falsely accused or wrongfully arrested

Similarly, people often falsely accuse others of committing involuntary manslaughter.

Maybe the family members or friends of the “victim” want to minimize his/her role in his/her own death—by blaming it all on someone else. Or maybe somebody wants to take revenge against or otherwise harm the defendant.

In any event, this is another situation where a criminal defense lawyer with experience in homicide cases, who understands the stakes and how important technical details are, can be extremely valuable in fighting involuntary manslaughter charges.

4. Are there related crimes?

4.1. Penal Code 187 murder

Penal Code 187 murder is distinguished from manslaughter by one major factor: for a homicide to be murder, there needs to be some sort of “malice aforethought”—typically the intent to kill.²⁶

But if you kill someone by accident when committing a dangerous felony, you will be charged with murder instead of manslaughter, under the “felony-murder rule.”²⁷

Potential prison sentences for a murder conviction can range from fifteen (15) years to life in prison.²⁸

Or if the murder qualifies as “special circumstances murder” (for example, if the defendant murdered a witness or police officer, or murdered someone for financial gain), then a murder defendant could even face the California death penalty. (Los Angeles County prosecutors are no longer seeking the death penalty.)²⁹

4.2. Penal Code 192a voluntary manslaughter

California voluntary manslaughter, Penal Code 192a, is a killing that takes place “upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.”³⁰

In other words, as the name implies, a voluntary manslaughter is a killing that is intentional or voluntary—but is punished less harshly than murder because it is the result of the defendant’s strong emotions.

Voluntary manslaughter leads to stricter penalties than involuntary manslaughter: a state prison sentence of three (3), six (6) or eleven (11) years,³¹ plus a “strike” on your record under California’s “three strikes law.”³²

4.3. Penal Code 192c involuntary vehicular manslaughter

Under Penal Code 192c, involuntary vehicular manslaughter in California is almost identical to the crime of involuntary manslaughter. The only difference is that it involves driving a vehicle in a negligent manner or violating a traffic law, and thereby causing an accident where a person is killed. The penalty is up to 4 years in jail or prison. ³³

If you commit vehicular manslaughter with “gross negligence” (similar to the criminal negligence required for involuntary manslaughter), then the crime is called “gross vehicular manslaughter”–and may be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the prosecutor’s discretion.³⁴

The potential felony sentence is higher than for involuntary manslaughter—two (2), four (4) or six (6) years.³⁵

But if you commit vehicular manslaughter with only “ordinary negligence,” then it is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one (1) year in county jail.³⁶

4.4. Penal Code 191.5 vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated

If you commit the crime of vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, then you will be charged under Penal Code 191.5a, California’s gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated law, or Penal Code 191.5b, California’s vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated law.³⁷

This offense carries heavier penalties than either involuntary manslaughter or ordinary vehicular manslaughter. If it is committed with gross negligence (gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated), it is a felony with a potential sentence of four (4), six (6) or ten (10) years.³⁸

And even if vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated is only committed with ordinary negligence, it is still a wobbler with a maximum potential felony sentence of four (4) years.³⁹

Contact us for additional help…

For questions about Penal Code 192b PC involuntary manslaughter, or to discuss your case confidentially with one of our California criminal defense attorneys, do not hesitate to contact us at Shouse Law Group.

We have local criminal law offices in and around Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, San Jose, Oakland, the San Francisco Bay area, and several nearby cities.

For more information on Nevada involuntary manslaughter laws, please see our page on Nevada involuntary manslaughter laws.

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