State v. Pelham

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

LaVECCHIA, J.

This criminal appeal focuses on a disputed jury instruction involving the subject of causation. Defendant was convicted of second-degree death by auto, in contravention of N.J.S.A. 2C:ll-5. At trial, the court instructed the jury that a car-accident victim’s voluntary removal from a respirator was legally insufficient as an independent intervening cause and thus incapable of breaking the chain of causality between defendant’s acts and the victim’s death. Specifically, the charge informed the jury that if it found “that the defendant’s…