People v. Berry
Supreme Court of California
556 P.2d 777 (1976)
Relevant factsFree
After marrying and then almost immediately traveling abroad, Berry's wife announced upon returning that she had fallen in love with another man and repeatedly alternated between taunting him with the affair and expressing desire to stay together over several weeks, escalating to a final violent confrontation in which Berry strangled her to death; a psychiatrist testified her own suicidal impulses drove her to provoke Berry into an uncontrollable rage.
IssueFree
Whether provocation by a defendant's spouse that could arouse a passion of jealousy, pain, and rage in an ordinary man of average disposition supports a finding that the defendant was in the heat of passion during the homicide of the spouse.