HEAT OF PASSION
A phrase used in CRIMINAL LAW to describe an intensely emotional state of mind induced by a type of provocation that would cause a reasonable person to act on impulse or without reflection.
A finding that a person who killed another
acted in the heat of passion will reduce murder
to MANSLAUGHTER under certain circum-
stances. The essential prerequisites for such a
reduction are that the accused must be provoked
to a point of great anger or rage, such that the
person loses his or her normal capacity for self-
control; the circumstances must be such that a
reasonable person, faced with the same degree of
