Hall was skiing and ran into
Cobb. Cobb died from the collision.
Hall was probably skiing to
fast and not looking where he was going.
Hall was arrested and charged
with felony reckless manslaughter
(aka involuntary manslaughter).
At a preliminary hearing, the
Trial Judge dismissed the charged. The prosecutor appealed.
The Trial Judge found that
Hall's conduct did not rise to the level of dangerousness required under
Colorado law.
On Appeal, the Trial Court
affirmed the dismissal. The prosecutor appealed.
The Trial Court found that
Hall may have been negligent, but
that wasn't enough to make him criminally culpable. For that, his
conduct would need to rise to the level of recklessness.
The difference, under
Colorado law, was that Hall's conduct would have needed to be "at
least more likely than not" to cause a death. Skiing too fast
generally does not result in someone dying.
"For his conduct to
be reckless, the actor must have
consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death could result from his
actions."
The Colorado Supreme Court
reversed and remanded for a trial.
The Colorado Supreme Court
found that "substantial" did not mean "more likely than
not" and so the Trial Judge was in error.
The Court found that a
reasonable person could have concluded that Hall's skiing could have a substantial risk of causing death.
The Court concluded that,
because Hall had no good reason for skiing like a maniac, a reasonable
person could have concluded that the risk was unjustifiable.
The Court found that a
reasonable person could conclude that Hall's conduct was a "gross
deviation from the standard of care" that a reasonable skier would
take.
The Court found that a
reasonable person could conclude that Hall consciously disregarded the risk.
On remand, the Trial Court
found Hall innocent of reckless manslaughter, but convicted him of the lesser charge of negligent
homicide.
Basically, this case said that
there are four elements to showing the minimum culpability for involuntary
manslaughter:
The activity has a substantial
risk of causing death.
The activity has a risk that
is not justifiable.
The risk must be a gross
deviation from the standard of care.
