Say we’re somewhere in the boonies.
If I’m really pissed off at my wife/SO, because she was an asshole and should apologize, but didn’t: can I legally just drive away and leave her there to find her own way home? Could I be charged with anything? Say it’s 5 degrees outside, like tonight, and she has no money. She’s 20 miles from home. Did I commit a crime in this scenario?
I’d never do it. But I wanted to, long ago and far away.
IANAL, so WAG:
Yes, it’s legal. Decent grounds for at-fault divorce, but probably legal.
Guess assumes that you did not steal her car as you drove away 
No, nothing illegal happens in this scenario, but I felt like doing this at one time. I should probably just Pit her. Thanks for the response.
IANAL but, yes, of course you committed a crime. Unless you are severely mentally retraded it’s some form of manslaughter. You know damn well that leaving someone to walk 20 miles in 5 degree temperatures is almost certain to result in their death. If you choose to disregard that danger and the person dies then you can expect to be charged with some form of manslaughter depending on where the crime takes place.
Now if the temperature is more mild or she manages to survive then you probably aren’t commiiting any crime, though there may be a good chance of a civil finding against you. But in conditions where you choose to disregard the likelihood of death from your actions then you are guilty of manslaughter if the victim dies.
I feel like it might be different, though, if it was in the middle of a blizzard or something. The hazard of such a situation seems like it would be more analogous to locking your wife out of the car when on a safari as lions approach.
what if you’re in the middle of a desert and drive off leaving them with no water, shelter etc. Are you not effectively murdering them, using the landscape as your weapon?
Centigrade of Fahrenheit? Makes a big difference.
That, in fact, was the rationale for my reply. Is she not responsible for herself? Assuming she was not forced into the car at gunpoint at the beginning of the trip, well, she could have refused to go there.
I suppose the question really amounts to “Are we criminally liable if we fail to protect our spouses?”
I think I would come down to being able to say “no” to these two questions:
Did you make her take any actions that resulted in harm?
Did you prevent her taking any actions, she otherwise would have taken, that could have prevented her coming to harm?
If you can say no those, you’re in the clear.
Obviously. You prevented here getting back into the vehicle which she reasonably expected would be available to take her home.
Look, we could come up with dozens of factually identical scenarios. You take somone sailing 10 miles offshore, then sail away when they left the boat to go swimming. You go mountain climbing and then when the person is halfway up a span you take away all the ropes and equipment and leave them dangling on sheer cliff face. We could keep going forever making up examples of where you let someone put themselves in a position that is fatal if they are abandoned, and then abandon them.
This situation is no different. You took someone somewhere, waited until they left the vehicle and then drove off and left them in an envrionment that you knew would kill them. I think you’d need a damn good lawyer to convince the jury that isn’t manslaughter. The fact that you didn’t set out from home with the intent of abandoning them only reduces it from murder, it doesn’t mean that you are any less responsible for their death.
It isn’t about what she coudl have refused to do, it’s about what you could have refused to do. If you know that your actions are likely to cause death and you proceed despite that knowledge then any resulting death is (or at least can be) defined as manslaughter.
It’s no different to any other unsafe practice. You can’t for example offer your wife a ride in a car that you know has no brakes, and then say that you aren’t responsible for her death in a subsequent accident that occured. You knew that your action of driiving a car with no breaks was inherently likely to cause death and you proceeded regardless. The fact that you didn’t force her into the unsafe situation at gunpoint won’t save you from a manslaughter charge because her choices are not what gets presented at trial, yours are.
Ultimately you have sufficient knowledge to judge that your actions are likely to cause death and you make the choice to take that action. She doesn’t have control of your actions regardless of whether she willingly put her life in your hands of not. I guess the way to look at it is that once someone’s life is in your hands you have a respnosibility not to knowingly jeopardize it.
It would be nice if some actual laws or cases were being cited here. 
brownsfan, can’t take the time for a lengthy response this morning as I get ready for work; will address this when I get home tonight, assuming one of the other legal eagles hasn’t gotten to it already.
To the rest of you: please stop offering opinions; it’s not GD here.
Ohio revised code 2903.041: Reckless homicide:
As others have noted, a reasonable person would understand that forcing someone to walk 20 miles in sub-freezing weather is likely to be harmful to the person forced to walk. IANAL and have not checked whether there is a legal definition in Ohio of the word “reckless” but if I were a prosecutor and your wife diad of exposure after you locked her out of the car and made her walk, I’d at least start with reckless homicide and I’d diligently research whether locking her out of the car in the first place constituted any sort of felony or misdemeanor that would bump the charge up to manslaughter or murder.
If she lives but suffers any injury as a result of your action I’d look at least to 2903.13, assault:
IIRC there’s actually a crime in VA, at least, of Attempted Manslaughter. IOW, if a reasonable person would think she might die then, even if she survives without injury, you could probably still be charged with Attempted Manslaughter. I would also imagine you could also be charged with spousal abuse, and possibly other things like reckless endangerment.
I think Otto may have it nailed down, but of course your response is welcome. Thank you all.
Ok, you’ve made me think of something else. Suppose she didn’t die, but suffered frostbite. Or it was summer and just suffered inconvenience. Is it still a crime?
Tapioca Dextrin: Fahrenheit.
If she dies it could be murder, depending on the jurisdiction. Leaving your wife in the middle of nowhere with no money in the middle of night in five degree weather is indicative of either an intent to kill her, intent to do her serious bodily harm, or a reckless and callous disregard for human life that rises to the level of depraved heart murder. If the evidence shows you didn’t intend to kill her or do her serious bodily harm but had a criminal mens rea that wasn’t high enough to merit depraved heart murder, the charge would be involuntary manslaughter.
If she doesn’t die, it depends on what the facts are. If the evidence shows you intended to kill her, it’s attempted murder. If you didn’t intend to kill her and were just acting with a reckless or negligent disregard for whether she lived or died, it could be assault, reckless endangerment, or deadly conduct, again depending on the jurisdiction.
Most states do not permit a charge of “attempted manslaughter,” because of the problem of intent.
As a general principle, “manslaughter” indicates a negligent state of mind, but no intent to cause a death. “Attempt” indicates the specific intention to commit a crime which fails for some reason outside the accused’s control. You cannot, under those definitions, attempt a manslaughter, since the very point of manslaughter is that you didn’t intend for anything to happen.
Where it is permitted as a crime, it’s typically a degree of homicide, a lesser-included offense.
Virginia does not support a charge of “attempted manslaughter.” In Virgina, manslaughter is divided into “voluntary” and “involuntary” categories. Voluntary manslaughter is intentional killing together with factors that negate a finding of prior planning of the act. The classic example is the killing in a heat of passion, blinded by rage. Death is intended, but only in the instant, not as a result of reasoned thought over time.
Involuntary manslaughter is what we’re discussing here – an unlawful act or unlawful omission that, unintended, causes the death of another.
Now turning to the OP’s question: in general, the question is whether you had some legal duty to act. As heinous as it may sound, there is no general legal duty to assist another person; if you are driving by and see someone already stranded in the blizzard, there is no general legal rule requiring you to stop and assist.
However, if you created the situation, the picture changes. If you force someone out of the car into the snowstorm, you do have a duty that’s breached by driving away and letting them freeze.
I would reiterate that if she suffers frostbite or any bodily harm, or even if she doesn’t, you’re guilty of assault per my previous cite.
Here’s the Wikipedia article on criminal recklessness with a quote from Black’s Law Dictionary:
On Law & Order (takes place in Manhattan) wouldn’t there be some sort of charge for “depraved indifference”? I think Jack McCoy rolls that one out all the time.