Freddo v. State

Freddo (defendant) killed a coworker, Higginbotham, by striking him with a metal bar after Higginbotham repeatedly called him a "son of a bitch" — an insult Freddo was especially sensitive to because of his background as an orphan. At trial, Freddo claimed both self-defense (based on an alleged threatening gesture) and heat-of-passion provocation from the repeated insult; the jury rejected both defenses and convicted him of second-degree murder. Freddo appealed, arguing he should have been convicted of, at most, voluntary manslaughter.