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      02-18-2013, 01:31 PM   #51
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gatorfast View Post
Sounds like YOU need to understand the law. This was certainly not in the heat of passion. That would require a situation that "causes a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed". I certainly dont think a reasonable person flips out after dropping a sandwich.

However, second degree murder is a murder that is not premeditated or planned in advance (as in this case).

Per wiki: "For example, a bar fight that results in death would ordinarily constitute second degree murder. If that same bar fight stemmed from a discovery of infidelity, however, it may be mitigated to voluntary manslaughter"
I need to understand the law? You need to learn how to READ and UNDERSTAND the law. Your right, a normal person won't flip out after dropping a sandwich. But a normal person WOULD flip out if I was being laughed at after I dropped my sandwich.

Quote:
A murder can be reduced to voluntary manslaughter if the defendant acted in the heat of passion. A killing in the heat of passion requires: 1) that the defendant was provoked, 2) that the provocation caused the defendant to act rashly and under the influence of intense emotion, obscuring his judgment and reasoning, and 3) the provocation would have caused the average person to act rashly

In other words, to qualify for heat-of-passion voluntary manslaughter, the jury must find the defendant was so provoked by what the victim did, and reasonably so, that he killed out of intense emotion rather than deliberate judgment.


This wasn't a bar fight. This was a case of someone provoking the defendant by laughing at him for dropping his sandwich, which made him act "rashly and under influence of intense emotion."
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