MBE Rules · Criminal Law
Provocation — reasonable-person test
The rule
For voluntary manslaughter, provocation is legally adequate only if it would arouse a sudden and intense passion in an ordinary reasonable person, actually provoked the defendant, and left no reasonable opportunity to cool off. Classic categories include serious battery, mutual combat, and discovery of a spouse in the act of adultery; mere words are almost never adequate.
In plain English
The reasonable-person test is objective as to the trigger and cooling time, but subjective as to whether this defendant was in fact enraged.
The trap
Words alone — even grossly insulting words — are traditionally insufficient provocation.
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