California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Gonzalez, E052704 (Cal. App. 2012):
place between the victim and the accused before the fatality may be sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors regarding whether the accused planned the killing in advance.' [Citation.]" (Id. at pp. 1295-1296.) In People v. Steele (2002) 27 Cal.4th 1230, 1253, for example, the defendant introduced "evidence that he was intoxicated, that he suffered various mental deficiencies, that he had a psychological dysfunction due to traumatic experience in the Vietnam War, and that he just 'snapped' when he heard [a] helicopter . . . ." The court stated that evidence "may have satisfied the subjective element of heat of passion." (Ibid.)
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