Looking at the Texas Castle Doctrine changes for civil immunity, the law says:
"Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Sec. 83.001. CIVIL IMMUNITY. A defendant who uses force or deadly force that is justified under Chapter 9 Penal Code, is immune from civil liability for personal injury or death that results from the defendant's use of force or deadly force, as applicable."
So the first question for anyone who shoots an innocent person in the course of self-defense is "Was that particular use of deadly force justified under Chapter 9 of the Penal Code?" because if it was not, you do not have immunity from civil liability.
So my interpretation of that law would be that the chances you would be immune from civil liability under Texas Castle Doctrine for shooting an innocent third party would be zero. You might escape criminal charges;but you are going to remain exposed on civil liability.
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Originally Posted by Aguila Blanca
First, the ONLY state that allows the use of deadly force to protect property (at night ONLY) is Texas. No other state allows the use of deadly force to protect property or to prevent its theft.
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This is a misstatement of Texas law. You are confusing two different legal issues (Deadly force to prevent criminal mischief at night and Deadly force to protect property). Under
very limited circumstances, Texas allows the use of deadly force to protect property regardless of whether it is day or night (See Texas Penal Code Subchapter 9.41 - 9.43 for more detail).
I don't want to sidetrack this thread from its original direction; but this is already an area of Texas law that is poorly understood by many Texas gunowners, so I wanted to clarify that.