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CA · jury_instructions

CALCRIM No. 3404

Accident (Pen. Code, § 195)

activein force · 2022-01-01 – presentcompiled-edition

<Give this paragraph when instructing on general or specific intent crimes>

[The defendant is not guilty of <insert crime[s]> if (he/she)

acted [or failed to act] without the intent required for that crime, but

acted instead accidentally. Y ou may not find the defendant guilty of

<insert crime[s]> unless you are convinced beyond a

reasonable doubt that (he/she) acted with the required intent.]

<Give this paragraph when instructing on criminal or ordinary negligence

crimes>

[The defendant is not guilty of <insert crime[s]> if (he/she)

acted [or failed to act] accidentally without (criminal/ordinary)

negligence. Y ou may not find the defendant guilty of <insert

crime[s]> unless you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that (he/

she) acted with (criminal/ordinary) negligence.

[(Criminal/Ordinary) negligence is defined in another instruction.]

[Criminal negligence involves more than ordinary carelessness,

inattention, or mistake in judgment. A person acts with criminal

negligence when:

1. He or she 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.

In other words, a person acts with criminal negligence when the way he

or she acts is so different from the way an ordinarily careful person

would act in the same situation that his or her act amounts to disregard

for human life or indifference to the consequences of that act.]

[Ordinary negligence is the failure to use reasonable care to prevent

reasonably foreseeable harm to oneself or someone else. A person is

negligent if he or she (does something that a reasonably careful person

would not do in the same situation/ [or] fails to do something that a

reasonably careful person would do in the same situation).]]

New January 2006; Revised April 2008, August 2012, September 2017, March 2022

Provenance

Source
courts.ca.gov
Retrieved
2026-08-20
Edition
calcrim-2022
Content hash
b958a7c75137c9cf6cd6ba1edc48f8431954792aaee277aa05a11a7989ae4aa5
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