Opinion ID: 2614687
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Elements of Culpable Negligence

Text: O'Leary contends that a conviction of homicide by culpable negligence under AS 11.15.080 [12] requires the jury to find that he consciously created an unreasonable risk to others. O'Leary offered instructions which stated in part: [T]o constitute culpable negligence, punishable as a crime, there must be shown a wanton mind bent on the doing of acts in reckless disregard for human life, or with a conscious disregard to the probable consequences of one's acts... . The instructions given by the trial judge, however, included the following: Culpable negligence is something more than that slight degree of negligence necessary to support a civil action for damages and is negligence of such a degree, so gross and wanton, as to be deserving of punishment. Culpable negligence implies a reckless disregard of the consequences which might ensue from the doing of an act and constitutes conduct of such a reckless, gross and wanton character so as to indicate an utter, heedless indifference to the rights, properties, safety and even the lives of others. However, the State need not show that Mr. O'Leary intentionally caused a head-on collision with the automobile operated by Mrs. Wallace. To find culpable negligence, the facts must be such that the fatal consequences of the act were certain or highly probable, and it must appear that death or serious bodily injury was not the result of misadventure but the natural and probable result of a wanton mind and reckless conduct. In order to constitute culpable negligence it is not necessary that the actor actually recognize that his conduct is extremely dangerous. It is enough that he knows or has reason to know of circumstances which would bring home to the realization of the ordinary, reasonable man the extremely dangerous character of his conduct. The first paragraph of the court's instruction is essentially identical to an instruction that we approved in DeSacia v. State, 469 P.2d 369, 371 n. 2 (Alaska 1970), and we believe the instruction as a whole is a correct statement of the law. In Alaska, homicide by culpable negligence is a form of manslaughter, and intent is not an element of the crime. See AS 11.15.080; DeSacia v. State, 469 P.2d at 371 n. 1. Culpable negligence implies a reckless disregard of consequences, a needless indifference to the rights and safety and even the lives of others. Barbeau v. United States, 193 F.2d 945, 949, 13 Alaska 551 (9th Cir.1951), aff'g 92 F. Supp. 196 (D.Alaska 1950). Culpable negligence requires conduct that is more wanton and reckless than that involved in ordinary negligence. Stork v. State, 559 P.2d 99, 101 (Alaska 1977); DeSacia v. State, 469 P.2d at 372. It does not, however, require an actual subjective awareness of the risk being created. Thus, we believe that the instruction given by the trial judge adequately set forth the elements of homicide by culpable negligence.