Manslaughter Attorney in Houston, Texas

How is manslaughter different from murder under Texas law?

More In This Category

View Transcript

Manslaughter is different from murder because they have different mens rea, basically, that means the mental state. So for murder it has to be intentional or knowingly. So you have to intentionally seek out this person to kill them and knowingly kill them, whereas manslaughter is recklessly, so you can recklessly kill some somebody. So, basically, for manslaughter you have to be aware of the circumstances that could occur based on your conduct and disregard those circumstances. And we see this a lot in DWI, drunk driving crashes where someone is killed because, obviously, drinking and driving is reckless and then, you get in a car accident and you cause someone’s death and they’re then charged with manslaughter.

Houston, TX criminal defense attorney Leslie Rebescher explains how manslaughter is different from murder under Texas law.

More Videos From This Lawyer