<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. You 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. You 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