a defendant's excuse for committing a crime due to sudden anger or heartbreak, in
order to eliminate the element of "premeditation. " This usually arises in murder
or attempted murder cases, when a spouse or sweetheart finds his/her "beloved" having
sexual intercourse with another and shoots or stabs one or both of the coupled pair.
To make this claim the defendant must have acted immediately upon the rise of passion,
without the time for contemplation or allowing for "a cooling of the blood. " It
is sometimes called the "Law of Texas" since juries in that state are supposedly
lenient to cuckolded lovers who wreak their own vengeance. The benefit of eliminating
premeditation is to lessen the provable homicide to manslaughter with no death penalty
and limited prison terms. An emotionally charged jury may even acquit the impassioned
defendant.
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