State v. Redfern

BRANCH, Justice.

Defendant’s sole assignment of error attacks the failure of the trial court to charge the jury on the lesser-included offense of involuntary manslaughter.

Involuntary manslaughter is the unintentional killing of a human being without malice, proximately caused by (1) an unlawful act not amounting to a felony nor naturally dangerous to human life, or (2) a culpably negligent act or omission. State v. Ward, 286 N.C. 304, 210 S.E. 2d 407.

It is unquestioned that the trial judge must instruct the jury as to a lesser-included offense of the crime charged, when there is evidence from…