California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Autry, 37 Cal.App.4th 351, 43 Cal.Rptr.2d 135 (Cal. App. 1995):
In criminal prosecutions, the contributing negligence of the victim or a third party does not relieve the criminal actor of liability, unless the victim's or third party's conduct was the sole or superseding cause of the death. (People v. Pike (1988) 197 Cal.App.3d 732, 748, 243 Cal.Rptr. 54; People v. Armitage (1987) 194 Cal.App.3d 405, 420, 239 Cal.Rptr. 515.) Appellant argued to the jury that the failure of the construction company to protect its workers with an attenuator truck was such an intervening or superseding cause. Appellant requested three instructions on superseding or intervening cause,
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