Colorado Manslaughter Law – C.R.S. § 18-3-104 – Explained by Defense Lawyer

Colorado Revised Statute § 18-3-104 C.R.S. makes it a class 4 felony to commit manslaughter. A less serious form of homicide than murder, manslaughter is killing someone through reckless conduct. The punishment for manslaughter is two to six years in prison (followed by three years of mandatory parole) and fines of $2,000 to $500,000. To help you better understand the law, our Colorado criminal defense lawyers will discuss the following manslaughter topics:

• 1. Elements of C.R.S. 18-3-104
• 2. Defenses
• 3. Other Homicide Crimes
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Additional Reading

1. Elements of C.R.S. 18-3-104

For you to be convicted of manslaughter under Colorado Revised Statutes 18-3-104(1), prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you either:

• recklessly caused the death of another person or
• intentionally caused or aided another person to commit suicide.

To be guilty of reckless manslaughter, it is not necessary that you specifically intend to cause someone’s death.¹ Rather, it requires that you knowingly engage in conduct that creates a substantial and unjustifiable risk of causing death.² An example may be twirling a gun you know is loaded, and it accidentally goes off and kills someone. To be guilty of manslaughter by aiding a suicide, you must have encouraged, assisted, or provided the means for the person to kill themself. If you actively performed the act that resulted in death, then you would instead face murder charges.³ However, there is an exception for medical caregivers who withhold care or provide medication in accordance with:

• An advanced medical directive,
• A medical durable power of attorney,
• A living will,
• A cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) directive.⁴

You are also not guilty of manslaughter if you are a medical caregiver with prescriptive authority – or authority to administer medication – who prescribes or administers medication for palliative care to a terminally ill patient with the consent of the terminally ill patient or their agent.⁵ However, this exception does not permit a medical caregiver to assist in a patient’s suicide.

Manslaughter vs. 2nd-Degree Murder

With second-degree murder, the killing is not premeditated, but you know that death is practically certain as a result of your conduct. The classic example is playing Russian Roulette: even if you did not intend to kill a particular person, it was practically inevitable due to your deliberate actions. Second-degree murder also comprises “heat of passion” killings, like the one that results when you come home from work early and find your spouse in bed with someone else. In short, you killed because you were substantially provoked by something that would arouse passion in a reasonable person. With manslaughter, your conduct is more reckless than intentional, which is why manslaughter is a less serious crime. Note that, unlike many states, Colorado does not have separate “voluntary manslaughter” and “involuntary manslaughter” crimes. What many states define as voluntary manslaughter is second-degree murder in Colorado.

Manslaughter vs. Criminally Negligent Homicide

Criminally negligent homicide occurs when, through a gross deviation from the standard of reasonable care, you simply fail to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death, and someone is killed as a result. Your conduct is not reckless like in manslaughter, but rather just very careless. Therefore, manslaughter is a more serious crime than criminally negligent homicide. For example, you have a gun that you forget is loaded, and you twirl it around. If it goes off accidentally, you would probably face criminally negligent homicide charges for acting negligently. However, if you knew the gun was loaded and chose to twirl it anyway, then you would probably face manslaughter charges for your reckless conduct.

2. Defenses

Here at Colorado Legal Defense Group, we have represented countless people charged with homicide crimes such as manslaughter. In our experience, the following five defenses have proven very effective with prosecutors, judges, and juries at getting C.R.S. 18-3-104 charges reduced or dismissed.

1) The Killing Was an Accident

If the killing was accidental and not the result of ignoring a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death, you are not guilty of manslaughter. Accidental killings include (but are not limited to):

• hunting accidents,
• auto accidents by sober drivers, and
• deaths due to unknown hazardous conditions in the home that do not result from deviations from a reasonable standard of care.

Typical evidence we rely on in these cases includes video surveillance and eyewitness accounts.

2) You Acted in Self-Defense / Defense of Others

In Colorado, you may legally use deadly physical force to defend yourself or someone else if:

1. You reasonably believe a lesser degree of force to be inadequate, and
2. You reasonably believe that:
   • You or another person is in imminent danger of great bodily injury or death; or
   • Someone else is about to use physical force during the commission of a burglary; or
   • Someone else is committing or appears to be about to commit, robbery or sexual assault;⁶; or
   • Someone has unlawfully entered your home and committed – or intends to commit — a crime in your home, and you reasonably believe that such person might use physical force against you or another occupant. ⁷

If we can demonstrate that a reasonable person in your position would have acted similarly, the criminal charges should not stand.⁸

3) You Suffered from Diminished Capacity / Insanity

Under Colorado law, you are considered insane when, as a result of a mental disease or defect:

• You are incapable of distinguishing right from wrong concerning the crime with which you are charged, or
• You are unable to form a culpable mental state that is an essential element of the crime charged.

Simply suffering from a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is not enough. You also cannot use the insanity defense if your diminished capacity resulted solely from voluntary intoxication. A successful diminished capacity defense, therefore, requires a great deal of legwork as well as the testimony of medical experts to explain that you had no awareness of your actions at the time of a killing or were unable to understand the consequences.

4) You Are the Victim of Mistaken Identification

Manslaughter cases frequently turn on eyewitness testimony, yet even honest and well-meaning witnesses can make errors due to multiple factors.⁹ Therefore, many researchers consider eyewitness testimony inherently unreliable.¹⁰ Our experienced Colorado criminal defense attorneys have some proven techniques to counter unfavorable eyewitness testimony. These include (without limitation):

• Engaging a skilled “eyewitness identification expert” to explain to the jury how and why memory can be unreliable;
• Conducting vigorous interviews and cross-examination of witnesses;
• Challenging the procedures the police use for conducting lineups and photo spreads; and
• Using experienced private investigators to locate additional witnesses and uncover inconsistencies in the district attorney’s case.

5) There Was Police Misconduct

Police and prosecutors are subject to stringent rules and procedures in investigating and prosecuting crimes. If the police or the prosecutor messes up, we can move to exclude evidence obtained as a result. Ways the police can violate your rights include (but are not limited to):

• Planting evidence or failing to maintain the chain of custody of evidence,
• Committing perjury,
• Obtaining a faulty search warrant,
• Contaminating the crime scene evidence,
• Improperly conducting police line-ups,
• Failing to read or observe your Miranda rights, or
• Conducting an illegal search and seizure in violation of your rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

3. Other Homicide Crimes

The following table compares the elements and penalties for Colorado’s primary homicide crimes.

Crime	Code Section	Elements	Colorado Penalties
First Degree Murder	C.R.S. 18-3-102	Intentional killing of another person with deliberation and premeditation. May also include felony murder, killing a peace officer, or causing death by extreme indifference.	Class 1 felony:  life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Second Degree Murder	C.R.S. 18-3-103	Knowingly causing the death of another person without the premeditation required for first-degree murder.	Class 2 felony:  16 to 48 years in prison and/or $5,000 to $1,000,000. If committed in the heat of passion, this is a class 3 felony:  4 to 12 years in prison.
Manslaughter	C.R.S. 18-3-104	Recklessly causing the death of another person, or intentionally causing or aiding another person to commit suicide.	Class 4 felony:  2 to 6 years in prison and/or $2,000 to $500,000.
Criminally Negligent Homicide	C.R.S. 18-3-105	Failure to perceive, through a gross deviation from the standard of reasonable care, a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death will result from your conduct.	Class 5 felony:  1 to 3 years in prison and/or $1,000 to $100,000.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the legal definition of “reckless” in a Colorado manslaughter case?

Under Colorado law, you act “recklessly” when you consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that your conduct will cause someone’s death. This is the core requirement for manslaughter. Unlike murder (where you intend to kill) or negligence (where you should have known better), recklessness means you were aware of the danger but chose to ignore it anyway.

Is it manslaughter to help someone commit suicide in Colorado?

Yes. This applies even to “suicide pacts” or cases of assisted suicide that do not meet the strict requirements of the Colorado End of Life Options Act. However, the statute does have an exception for medical caregivers providing legitimate palliative care to terminally ill patients.

Can I be charged with manslaughter for a car accident?

In Colorado, fatal car accidents are usually prosecuted as vehicular homicide (C.R.S. 18-3-106). Like manslaughter, vehicular homicide is a class 4 felony.

Additional Reading

For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:

• (Wo)Manslaughter: Voluntary Manslaughter, Gender, and the Model Penal Code – Emory Law Journal.
• Are There Circumstances Other than Provocation which May Reduce Murder to Voluntary Manslaughter – Kentucky Law Journal.
• What Future for Voluntary Manslaughter? – The Journal of Criminal Law.
• Manslaughter and the Adequacy of Provocation: The Reasonableness of the Reasonable Man – University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
• The psychology and law of voluntary manslaughter: what can psychology research teach us about the “heat of passion” defense? – Behavior Decision Making.
• Some Provoking Aspects of Voluntary Manslaughter Law – Common Law World Review.

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