A driver who is aware that texting while driving is dangerous looks down at her phone to send a text, fails to stop at a red light, and strikes a pedestrian who is lawfully in the crosswalk. The pedestrian dies from the injuries. Under common-law homicide principles, which category of unintended killing best fits these facts?
The correct answer is reckless homicide (involuntary manslaughter based on recklessness). The driver consciously chose to text despite knowing that doing so created a substantial and unjustifiable risk to human life. This conscious disregard of a known danger satisfies recklessness.
Negligent homicide applies when the defendant should have perceived the risk but in fact did not; here the driver was aware of it.
Misdemeanor manslaughter requires that the death occur during the commission of an independent misdemeanor; mere texting while driving is typically treated as a traffic infraction, not a qualifying misdemeanor.
Felony murder is inapplicable because no inherently dangerous felony was underway.
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