People v. Washington
California Court of Appeal, Second District
130 Cal.Rptr. 96 (1976)
Merle Washington (defendant) shot and killed his partner Owen Brady during an argument in Brady's car, and was charged with second-degree murder; Washington argued at trial he acted in the heat of passion rather than with intent to kill, seeking a manslaughter instruction, and specifically argued the jury should judge his heat of passion against the standard of an ordinary or average homosexual individual rather than an ordinary reasonable person generally. The jury convicted him of second-degree murder, and he appealed the standard used.
Whether, in California, a homicide charge may be reduced to manslaughter only if the jury finds that the heat of passion would have provoked the same response from an ordinary, reasonable person of average self-control, rather than from an ordinary member of the defendant's particular social or demographic group.