CALCRIM No. 582

Duty—Murder Not Charged (Pen. Code, § 192(b))

The defendant is charged [in Count] with involuntary

manslaughter [in violation of Penal Code section 192(b)] based on failure

to perform a legal duty.

To prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime, the People must

prove that:

1. The defendant had a legal duty to <insert name of

decedent>;

2. The defendant failed to perform that legal duty;

3. The defendant’s failure was criminally negligent;

AND

4. The defendant’s failure caused the death of <insert

name of decedent>.

(A/An) <insert description of person owing duty> has a legal

duty to (help/care for/rescue/warn/maintain the property of/

<insert other required action[s]>) <insert description of

decedent, not name>.

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 how 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.

[Great bodily injury means significant or substantial physical injury. It is

an injury that is greater than moderate harm.]

[An act causes death if the death is the direct, natural, and probable

consequence of the act and the death would not have happened without

the act. A natural and probable consequence is one that a reasonable

person would know is likely to happen if nothing unusual intervenes. In

deciding whether a consequence is natural and probable, consider all of

the circumstances established by the evidence.]

[There may be more than one cause of death. An act causes death, only

if it is a substantial factor in causing the death. A substantial factor is

more than a trivial or remote factor. However, it does not need to be the

only factor that causes the death.]

New January 2006; Revised September 2020, October 2021, October 2025