Schroeder v. State

This case presents two issues. First, in a prosecution for murder, is a defendant’s inability to remember engaging in the charged conduct alone sufficient evidence of recklessness to raise the lesser-included offense of manslaughter? Second, did the trial court in this case err in failing to charge the jury on the lesser-included offense of manslaughter? We hold that because the culpable mental states for both murder (intent) and manslaughter (recklessness) relate to the result of the conduct — the causing of the death — evidence that a defendant does not remember engaging in that conduct…