Snip:
According to the Texas penal code, “a person commits an offense if he recklessly causes the death of an individual.”
Prosecutors must prove Guyger acted recklessly to make a manslaughter case stick.
A person acts recklessly by consciously disregarding “a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur.”
Longtime defense attorney Brook Busbee said the manslaughter charge doesn’t fit what law enforcement said happened in Guyger’s arrest warrant affidavit.
“We don’t know all the facts, but the facts in the affidavit don’t appear to match the manslaughter charge, because the act of shooting him wasn’t reckless,” Busbee said. “According to the affidavit, in her mind, it was intentional.”
Defense attorney John Creuzot, a former judge and prosecutor running against Johnson for district attorney, said in similar cases, suspects are charged with murder. The Guyger case is a “deviation from the norm,” he said.
“I am not aware of a case in which a person shoots another person in the torso, with death as the result, and is charged with manslaughter,” Creuzot said. “In Dallas County, the longstanding practice of our law enforcement agencies, in similar cases, has been to charge suspects with murder.”
If the person “intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual” and “intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act clearly dangerous to human life,” according to the penal code.
If Guyger is charged with murder, prosecutors must prove she intended to cause or she knew firing her gun could cause serious bodily injury. End Snip.
Experts: Murder, not manslaughter best fits Botham Jean case - St. Lucia Times News
