Summary of Kibbe v. Henderson, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 1976

Facts:  The deceased was drunk in a bar and the defendant along with an accomplice drove the deceased to highway and robbed him and left him on the side of the road.  The deceased was struck by a speeding truck and was killed. The defendant was charged and convicted with second degree murder, robbery in the second degree and grand larceny in the third degree.  The defendant argues the his murder conviction should be reversed because the trial judge failed to instruct the jury about the issue of causation.

Issue: Whether the trial judge erred when it failed to instruct the jury about the element of causation?

Holding: Yes

Ruling Statute: “A person is guilty of murder in the second degree when:  2. Under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes the death of another person.”

Rationale: The jury should have given the definition of causation and then it could have decided whether the defendant’s actions were the cause of victim’s death.  The jury could have considered whether a reasonable person in defendant’s shoes could have foreseen the deceased receiving great injuries or death by the actions.  “It has been held that where death is produced by an intervening force, such as Blake’s (driver) operation of his truck, the liability of one who put an antecedent force into action will depend on the difficult determination of whether the intervening force was a sufficient independent or supervening cause of death.”  The jury was never given the instruction to decide on this and therefore the verdict should be reversed.