Patrick v. State

Among the various and sometimes contradictory legal responses to the current opioid epidemic has been the decision by some state's attorneys to charge the sellers of heroin with homicide crimes when a buyer dies from overdose. 1 This case follows one of those prosecutions. We do not prejudge future cases nor make any broad pronouncement about the trend. Rather, we hold here only that in prosecutions for involuntary manslaughter, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of a causal nexus between the defendant's act and the victim's death. Because it did not do so here, we…