What is the standard of provocation for a jury in a murder case?

Defense counsel urged the trial court to tell the jury that there is no objective "reasonable person" standard for provocation in considering the degree of murder, citing People v. Fitzpatrick (1992) 2 Cal.App.4th 1285. (See id. at pp. 1295-1296 [rejecting the People's contention "the jury must apply an objective standard of provocation to reduce first degree murder to second degree murder, just as to reduce murder to manslaughter"].) The trial court responded to the jury's request: "The terms 'ordinary person of average disposition' and 'standard of conduct' relate only to your consideration of whether there was a provocation so as to reduce the offense from murder to manslaughter. Please see Instruction 522 relating to your consideration of provocation as it relates to reducing murder in the first degree to murder in the second degree."¹³

3. The Law on Provocation