premeditated murder down to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Marriages were hotbeds of emotion and it would be a rare spousal killing where mitigating murder down to manslaughter was not at least considered. Often, instead of mitigation, juries had found the abused defendant not guilty. So why the pretense at ignorance and the hostility not only toward her but the concept that the princess was an abused spouse? She went on.
“We all understand that if you step into your bedroom and find your spouse in bed with another person, a jury would probably find that a reasonable person could fly into a murderous rage, grab a gun, and pull the trigger. Back home, we call this a Texas divorce.”
Hall was the only one who smiled. He looked the stuffiest, but Marlowe decided he was definitely the nicest.
“In my experience, the real key to the defense is the time between the provocation and the lethal blow. The law says that the deadly blow must be delivered in close time proximity to the provocation, hence the expression a sudden heat of passion. There are no precise time limits, each case is judged on its own merits, but the courts have universally tried to limit the time between the provocation and the killing, with many courts getting offended if it’s more than a matter of a few minutes. The easy cases are those with provocation and almost instantaneous reaction—you walk into the bedroom, find your spouse in bed with someone, and you grab a gun, or you’re in a bar and someone says something insulting to your companion and you swing a beer bottle.
“The tough cases are those in which there is a greater length of time between the provocation and the killing. You find your spouse in bed with another person, you leave the house, go to a gun shop, buy a gun, and come back and start shooting. To find heat of passion, the courts prefer that you react at the moment of the provocation. If you run into the kitchen and grab a knife, or to the den for a shotgun, those cases are also often winnable. But if you go for a drive to think about it, if you have time to cool off, or leave to buy a weapon, the courts say you are no longer reacting under heat of passion.
“So the amount of time between the provocation and pulling the trigger—or the stabbing, bludgeoning, choking, or however the lethal blow is delivered—is crucial. That’s where the cases that even have adequate provocation are commonly lost—you have to be provoked, you have to pull the trigger while you’re still in the grip of powerful emotions from the incident.”
All seven faces were blank. She had no doubt at all that the subject of provocation for a heat of passion defense had been discussed by the group until each of them had it down pat and could repeat it by rote.
“As I’m sure you all know, if there is time to premeditate, it’s murder and not manslaughter. Murder in general requires malice, and malice usually comes from premeditation in which the killer has thought about the crime. Thus to mitigate the crime down to manslaughter, there must first be provocation and second, delivery of the fatal blow immediately thereafter. The phrase ‘slow trigger’ has arisen in my cases because I’ve managed to stretch out the time period from the provocation to the reaction.”
“How much time have you managed to stretch?” Trent asked.
“Years.”
“My God!”
The exclamation came from Lord Finfall. And Marlowe recognized immediately that it was not astonishment at her amazing feats, but something akin to horror that anyone had perverted a legal theory that probably went back to antiquity.
“Years between the provocation and the killing. For a killing in a sudden heat of passion.” The hair on the back of the neck of Lord Finfall’s fifty years of legal training was standing straight up.
Marlowe smothered a grin. “The killing still remains a sudden event, though I’ve stretched the decision to kill from minutes to hours,” she said
“We all understand that if you step into your bedroom and find your spouse in bed with another person, a jury would probably find that a reasonable person could fly into a murderous rage, grab a gun, and pull the trigger. Back home, we call this a Texas divorce.”
Hall was the only one who smiled. He looked the stuffiest, but Marlowe decided he was definitely the nicest.
“In my experience, the real key to the defense is the time between the provocation and the lethal blow. The law says that the deadly blow must be delivered in close time proximity to the provocation, hence the expression a sudden heat of passion. There are no precise time limits, each case is judged on its own merits, but the courts have universally tried to limit the time between the provocation and the killing, with many courts getting offended if it’s more than a matter of a few minutes. The easy cases are those with provocation and almost instantaneous reaction—you walk into the bedroom, find your spouse in bed with someone, and you grab a gun, or you’re in a bar and someone says something insulting to your companion and you swing a beer bottle.
“The tough cases are those in which there is a greater length of time between the provocation and the killing. You find your spouse in bed with another person, you leave the house, go to a gun shop, buy a gun, and come back and start shooting. To find heat of passion, the courts prefer that you react at the moment of the provocation. If you run into the kitchen and grab a knife, or to the den for a shotgun, those cases are also often winnable. But if you go for a drive to think about it, if you have time to cool off, or leave to buy a weapon, the courts say you are no longer reacting under heat of passion.
“So the amount of time between the provocation and pulling the trigger—or the stabbing, bludgeoning, choking, or however the lethal blow is delivered—is crucial. That’s where the cases that even have adequate provocation are commonly lost—you have to be provoked, you have to pull the trigger while you’re still in the grip of powerful emotions from the incident.”
All seven faces were blank. She had no doubt at all that the subject of provocation for a heat of passion defense had been discussed by the group until each of them had it down pat and could repeat it by rote.
“As I’m sure you all know, if there is time to premeditate, it’s murder and not manslaughter. Murder in general requires malice, and malice usually comes from premeditation in which the killer has thought about the crime. Thus to mitigate the crime down to manslaughter, there must first be provocation and second, delivery of the fatal blow immediately thereafter. The phrase ‘slow trigger’ has arisen in my cases because I’ve managed to stretch out the time period from the provocation to the reaction.”
“How much time have you managed to stretch?” Trent asked.
“Years.”
“My God!”
The exclamation came from Lord Finfall. And Marlowe recognized immediately that it was not astonishment at her amazing feats, but something akin to horror that anyone had perverted a legal theory that probably went back to antiquity.
“Years between the provocation and the killing. For a killing in a sudden heat of passion.” The hair on the back of the neck of Lord Finfall’s fifty years of legal training was standing straight up.
Marlowe smothered a grin. “The killing still remains a sudden event, though I’ve stretched the decision to kill from minutes to hours,” she said
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