A mitigating defense to the crime of murder
A mitigating factor was used to establish the absence of malice by the defendant when the defendant committed the violent act of murder. It is not considered a form of insanity but rather a suspended mental state where passion and emotional stress dominate the defendant’s state of mind and ensuing actions to such a degree that the defendant could not act rationally or be aware of the consequences of their actions or the wrongfulness of their conduct.
Many states no longer permit this defense. Other jurisdictions choose to define this state of mind as a mitigating factor to murder defense by reframing it as a crime made in the “Heat of Passion.”
