Hazelwood was the captain of
an oil tanker that crashed. He was prosecuted under an Alaska law that
made it on offense to "discharge, cause to be discharged, or permit
the discharge of petroleum."
Hazelwood agreed that he was negligent (he was drunk when the boat crashed), but he
argued that he was not criminally negligent.
Criminal negligence, he argued, "is something more than the
slight degree of negligence necessary to support a civil action for
damages.
The Trial Court convicted
Hazelwood and gave him a suspended sentence. He appealed.
The Trial Judge instructed
the jury to find that a person acts negligently "when the person fails to perceive an
unjustifiable risk that the result will occur. The risk must be of such
a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a
deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would
observe in the situation."
The Appellate Court reversed.
The Appellate Court remanded
with new jury instructions about criminal negligence.
The Alaska Supreme Court
reinstated the conviction.
The Alaska Supreme Court
agreed with the Trial Judge's definition for negligence.
In general, Criminal
negligence is a "gross
deviation" from the standards of normal conduct and includes a
substantial and unjustifiable risk.
For example, one might be
negligent for failing to put up a fence to keep children away from your
pool. This will not lead to criminal charges. Criminal negligence might
include keeping a vicious dog tied to a tree with a thin piece of twine.
