State v. Elliot

Elliot (defendant) broke into his brother's home armed with a loaded gun, threatened his young niece to learn his brother's whereabouts, chased his brother's wife, and then shot and killed his brother when he arrived. Nearly a year later, a psychiatrist concluded Elliot had acted under an extreme emotional disturbance rooted in child-custody problems, housing instability, and intense fear of his brother. Even though Connecticut had replaced the old heat-of-passion manslaughter theory with the newer extreme-emotional-disturbance defense, the trial judge still instructed the jury using the heat-of-passion framework, requiring proof Elliot's hot blood had not had time to cool. Elliot was convicted of murder and appealed.