Pen. Code, § 192 · Chapter 1. Homicide
Pen. Code, § 192
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice. It is of three kinds:
(a) Voluntary—upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.
(b) Involuntary—in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony; or in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, or without due caution and circumspection. This subdivision shall not apply to acts committed in the driving of a vehicle.
(c) Vehicular—
(1) Except as provided in subdivision (a) of Section 191.5, driving a vehicle in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, and with gross negligence; or driving a vehicle in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, and with gross negligence.
(2) Driving a vehicle in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, but without gross negligence; or driving a vehicle in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, but without gross negligence.
(3) Driving a vehicle in connection with a violation of paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 550, where the vehicular collision or vehicular accident was knowingly caused for financial gain and proximately resulted in the death of any person. This paragraph does not prevent prosecution of a defendant for the crime of murder.
(d) This section shall not be construed as making any homicide in the driving of a vehicle punishable that is not a proximate result of the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, or of the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner.
(e) (1) “Gross negligence,” as used in this section, does not prohibit or preclude a charge of murder under Section 188 upon facts exhibiting wantonness and a conscious disregard for life to support a finding of implied malice, or upon facts showing malice, consistent with the holding of the California Supreme Court in People v. Watson (1981) 30 Cal.3d 290.
(2) “Gross negligence,” as used in this section, may include, based on the totality of the circumstances, any of the following:
(A) Participating in a sideshow pursuant to subparagraph (A) of subparagraph (2) of subdivision (i) of Section 23109 of the Vehicle Code.
(B) Engaging in a motor vehicle speed contest pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 23109 of the Vehicle Code.
(C) Speeding over 100 miles per hour.
(f) (1) For purposes of determining sudden quarrel or heat of passion pursuant to subdivision (a), the provocation was not objectively reasonable if it resulted from the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, including under circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted nonforcible romantic or sexual advance towards the defendant, or if the defendant and victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship. Nothing in this section shall preclude the jury from considering all relevant facts to determine whether the defendant was in fact provoked for purposes of establishing subjective provocation.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “gender” includes a person’s gender identity and gender-related appearance and behavior regardless of whether that appearance or behavior is associated with the person’s gender as determined at birth.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 311, Sec. 3. (SB 883) Effective January 1, 2024.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=192.
- Text hash
- sha256 901de9a6f7bdc8d4a45e6be12408c102f197e6a572cef3189627378e10214ba3
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Cited by 32 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 192. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Health and Safety Code
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 191.5Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 192.5Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 193Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 803Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 1170.16Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 1192.8Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 1203.08Printed as Section 187, 192, 207, 209, 209.5, 211, 215, 217, 245, 288
- Pen. Code, § 2933.5Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 3057Printed as Section 192
- Pen. Code, § 11160Printed as Section 192 or 192.5
- Pen. Code, § 12022.95Printed as Section 192
Vehicle Code
- Veh. Code, § 1808Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 9250.14Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 9250.19Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 11110Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 11215Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 12810Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 13351Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 13361Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 15300Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 15302Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 15620Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 20001Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 23550.5Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 23592Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
- Veh. Code, § 40000.10Printed as Section 192 of the Penal Code
Welfare and Institutions Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.