California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Butler, 114 Cal.Rptr.3d 696, 187 Cal.App.4th 998 (Cal. App. 2010):
The trial court's adherence to the formulation of the instruction in CALCRIM No. 580 adequately informed the jury of the criminal negligence standard applicable to all three forms of involuntary manslaughter. As stated in People v. Rodriguez, supra, 186 Cal.App.2d at page 440, 8 Cal.Rptr. 863, "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."
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