California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Tostado, F060407 (Cal. App. 2011):
Heat of passion arises when passion so disturbs or obscures the defendant's reason at the time of the killing or attempted killing as to cause the ordinarily reasonable person of average disposition to act rashly, without deliberation and reflection, and from passion rather than from judgment. (People v. Barton (1995) 12 Cal.4th 186, 201.) The passion the provocation causes may be any violent, intense, high-wrought or enthusiastic emotion other than revenge. (People v. Breverman (1998) 19 Cal.4th 142, 163.) The legal requirement of heat of passion has both an objective and a subjective component. (People v. Steele (2002) 27 Cal.4th 1230, 1252.) Just as, objectively, heat of passion must naturally arise in the mind of an ordinarily reasonable person under the given facts
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and circumstances, so, subjectively, the defendant must actually kill or attempt to kill on heat of passion. (Ibid.)
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