Quote:
Originally Posted by Sigaba
I wonder if the intent behind the statute is for scenarios in which a spouse is caught in the act by the defendant and then the defendant kills the spouse at "the time of the offense".
By contrast, if the defendant knows of an ongoing relationship and acts later in a premeditated fashion, would the defense of being under "the immediate influence of sudden passion" work?
Hopefully, a member of the bar could weigh in here.  |
I hope this helps...the law does lend itself well to summary.
I suspect that a successful claim of “sudden passion”
might reduce a criminal homicide from murder to voluntary manslaughter. Below, are quick and dirty summaries that may help to illustrate the rationale.
At common law, criminal homicide was classically subdivided into three basic offenses:
Murder, manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter --
I.
Murder, the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.
a. Malice aforethought is present if a person had any one of the following states of mind at the time of his act which caused the death of another person.
1). Intent to kill that person;
2). Intent to inflict great bodily harm on that person;
3). Awareness of an unjustifiably high risk to human life;
4). Intent to commit any felony other than the killing of that particular person (commonly referred to as the felony murder rule).
II.
Voluntary manslaughter, an intentional killing which is not murder due to adequate provocation.
a. Adequate provocation typically has three elements:
1). Action that would arouse sudden and intense passion in the mind of an
ordinary person such as to cause him to lose his self control;
2). The defendant was in fact provoked by the action; and
3). Insufficient time between the provocation and the killing for the passions of a reasonable person to subside.
III.
Involuntary manslaughter, which consists of two types,
a. Death caused by criminal negligence: i.e., recklessness or carelessness which the person knew or should have known was likely to result in injury or death; or
b. A killing caused by an unlawful act; i.e., a killing that is a foreseeable or natural result of any misdemeanor or a killing in the course of the commission of any certain types of misdemeanor.
As I said, In my experience, the law does not lend itself well to summary so I hope this helps.