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N.C.P.I.—CRIM 206.50
INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER-OTHER THAN BY AUTOMOBILE. FELONY.
GENERAL CRIMINAL VOLUME
JUNE 2014
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-18
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206.50 INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER—OTHER THAN BY AUTOMOBILE.
FELONY.
NOTE WELL: Refer to Punishment Chart for Homicides,
N.C.P.I.–Crim. 206 Series.
The defendant has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, which
is the unintentional killing of a human being by an unlawful act not
amounting to a felony or by an act done in a criminally negligent way.
For you to find the defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the
State must prove two things beyond a reasonable doubt:
First, that the defendant acted a) [unlawfully] b) [in a criminally
negligent way].1 a) [The defendant's act was unlawful if (describe crime,
e.g., defendant assaulted the victim (define assault).)] b) [Criminal
negligence is more than mere carelessness. The defendant's act was
criminally negligent, if, judging by reasonable foresight, it was done with
such gross recklessness or carelessness as amount to a heedless indifference
to the safety and rights of others.]2
And Second, the State must prove that the defendant's act
proximately caused the victim's death. A proximate cause is a real cause, a
cause without which the victim's death would not have occurred, and one
that a reasonably careful and prudent person could foresee would probably
produce such [injury] [damage] or some similar injurious result. (The
defendant's act need not have been the only cause, nor the last or nearest
cause. It is sufficient if it ocurred with some other cause acting at the same
1 If the defendant's conduct consisted of a failure to act, this sentence should read:
"First, that the defendant's failure to act [was unlawful] [constituted a criminally negligent
failure to perform a legal duty]." In later portions of this instruction, the judge should
modify the language as necessary to cover the failure-to-act situation.
2 In a case involving a failure to perform a duty, describe the defendant's legal duty.
