People v. Eulo
Court of Appeals of New York
472 N.E.2d 286 (1984)
After Eulo (defendant) shot a victim in the head, the victim was placed on an artificial respirator and later declared brain dead before being taken off life support for organ donation; at trial, the court did not explicitly instruct the jury on when death legally occurs, but did instruct that the organ-transplantation procedures could have been a superseding cause of death. The jury convicted Eulo of manslaughter, and he appealed, arguing the jury should have been instructed that death requires irreversible cessation of breathing and heartbeat rather than brain death.
Whether, in homicide proceedings, courts may use brain-based criteria in addition to traditional cardiorespiratory criteria to determine when death occurs.