Donate
Bills

SB 1350: Controlled substances: homicide resulting from the illegal furnishing of a controlled substance.

  • Session Year: 2021-2022
  • House: Senate
  • Latest Version Date: 2022-03-15
Version:

Existing law prohibits the possession, transportation, importation, sale, manufacturing, furnishing, administering, or giving away of specified controlled substances including, without limitation, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.

Existing law defines voluntary manslaughter as the unlawful killing of a human being without malice. Under existing law, manslaughter is punishable as a felony. malice upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion. Existing law defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought. Existing law holds a person, who is not the actual killer, criminally liable for murder in the first degree if that person is a major participant in the underlying felony and acts with reckless indifference to human life. Under existing law both manslaughter and murder are punishable as felonies.

This bill would provide that if a person who sells, furnishes, administers, or gives a controlled substance to another person where the injection, ingestion, inhalation, or absorption of that controlled substance by the person receiving that controlled substance proximately causes that persons death, the person who provided the controlled substance is guilty of involuntary manslaughter, as specified.By expanding the application of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

This bill would require a court to advise a person convicted of specified crimes, including, among others, selling, furnishing, transporting, or manufacturing certain controlled substances, that such conduct inflicts a grave health risk to those who ingest or are exposed to those substances, that it is extremely dangerous to human life to manufacture or distribute real or counterfeit controlled substances, and that if someone dies as a result, the defendant can be charged with voluntary manslaughter or murder. The bill would require the advisement to be provided in writing and the fact that the advisement was given to be recorded on the record and recorded in the abstract of judgment.

News Coverage:

SB 1350: Controlled substances: homicide resulting from the illegal furnishing of a controlled substance. | Digital Democracy