State v. Dumlao
Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawaii
715 P.2d 822 (1986)
Dumlao (defendant) shot and killed his mother-in-law, and at trial his expert testified that Dumlao suffered from a paranoid personality disorder marked by pathological jealousy over his wife; Dumlao's own testimony about his perceptions that night reflected the extremity of that jealousy. He asked the trial court to instruct the jury that it could convict him of manslaughter instead of murder if it found he acted under an extreme mental or emotional disturbance with a reasonable explanation, but the court refused, and the jury convicted him of murder.
Whether a defendant may be found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder when he caused a death while under the influence of an extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation, judged from the defendant's own subjective viewpoint of the circumstances.