California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Patterson, G041193 (Cal. App. 11/20/2009), G041193 (Cal. App. 2009):
"[I]n order to convict a person of voluntary manslaughter, the jury must find that the killing was intended and was unlawful in that it was neither justifiable, that is, did not constitute lawful defense of self, others, or property, prevention of a felony, or preservation of the peace [citation]; nor excusable, that is, the killing did not result from a lawful act done by lawful means with ordinary caution and a lawful intent, and did not result from accident and misfortune under very specific circumstances, including that no dangerous weapon was used [citation]. In order to convict a person of involuntary manslaughter, the jury must find that the killing was unlawful in that it occurred in the commission of an ordinarily lawful act which inherently involved a high degree of risk of death or great bodily harm and was accomplished in a criminally negligent manner. The definition of unlawful as an element of involuntary manslaughter differs significantly from that of voluntary manslaughter and requires the trier of fact to make substantially different findings. Voluntary manslaughter can be committed without committing involuntary manslaughter, and thus the latter is not a lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter." (People v. Orr (1994) 22 Cal.App.4th 780, 784.)
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