Is provocation sufficient to reduce the class of the crime from first to second degree murder?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Thomas, C083094, C083480 (Cal. App. 2018):
Provocation may negate the elements of premeditation and deliberation required for first degree murder, reducing the crime from first to second degree murder. (People v. Hernandez (2010) 183 Cal.App.4th 1327, 1333.) While it is true that the " 'existence of provocation which is not "adequate" to reduce the class of the offense [from murder to manslaughter] may nevertheless raise a reasonable doubt that the defendant formed the
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intent to kill upon, and carried it out after, deliberation and premeditation,' " there must be evidence from which a jury can determine "that the accused had formed the intent to kill as a direct response to the provocation and had acted immediately." (People v. Wickersham (1982) 32 Cal.3d 307, 329, italics added, disapproved on other grounds in People v. Barton, supra, 12 Cal.4th at pp. 200-201.)
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