Do you have a reference to law? You may be right, but do you have support for your position? (I thought there was a difference in the law between non-specific intent, which still needs to be proven, and NO intent.) Your position seems counter-intuitive to me; how can you prosecute somebody for doing something reckless that leaves a person dead, unless the person intentionally did the reckless act? For instance, if someone does something reckless while sleepwalking and it leads to a death, can that be prosecuted?
Let’s take Reckless Driving as it is defined in my state. It is defined as Willfull and wanton disregard...This takes a certain amount of affirmative action by the actor. In this case, you’d be right. The state proves the actor’s state of mind(willfull and wanton disregard...)by his actions, say, driving 100 mph in a 25 mph zone.
Here’s a different example that is in the vehicular homicide statute. It has Reckless driving, and DUI, and what is called disregard for the safety of others, or DSO. DSO has no intent by the actor. It is basically, a series of events, none of them reckless, that add up to causing a vehicluar homicide. It is the hardest one to get a conviction on. An example might be that you are sleepy and keep nodding off, waking up, nodding off.
An example of no intent, is the hunting accident. A hunter thinks he sees a deer. He’s sure of it. Bang, he drops another hunter. If the dead hunter is wearing a brown coat and antlers, the shooter is exonerated. Otherwise, he’s in big trouble regardless of his intent. The driver in the DSO scenario had no intention of falling asleep, either.
Revised Code of Washington (RCW)46.61.500 is Reckless Driving.
RCW 46.61.500 is Vehicular Homicide.
RCW 9A has First degree manslaughter which is what you are talking about and they have 2nd degree manslaughter where you get into the trickier part of proving an actor’s behavior, even though not blatantly reckless, added up to criminal negligence, which is another indistinct legal term. Hunter shooting another by accident.