The Texas Two-Step

For criminality under Texas law, you look to the aspects of 1) the conduct and 2) mental state. It gets a bit tricky because the terms are in separate parts of the statute.

Texas defines two lesser criminal homicides, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Manslaughter is defined as recklessly causing the death of an individual, while criminally negligent homicide, surprise, surprise, involves criminal negligence. Recklessness is the higher standard, as described below.

[NOTE: The homicide provisions are different from the assault laws. For criminal assault, a MINIMUM of recklessness is required. Assault is not a crime if only negligence, even criminal negligence, is shown (of course, the victim could still recover civil assault damages.) So in other words, if you kill someone, rather than just hurting them, the burden of proof concerning the defendant's mental state is lowered.]

Here are the defined mental states:

"A person acts recklessly, or is reckless, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct or the result of his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that its disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor's standpoint."

"A person acts with criminal negligence, or is criminally negligent, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct or the result of his conduct when he ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor's standpoint."

The key difference is the "OUGHT TO BE AWARE" language. For criminal negligence you just have to prove that he SHOULD have known, not that he DID KNOW and CONSCIOUSLY DISREGARDED it.

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pe.toc.htm