What is the test for reducing voluntary manslaughter to murder?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Highley, 2d Crim. No. B296129 (Cal. App. 2020):

"'"It is settled that in criminal cases, even in the absence of a request, the trial court must instruct on the general principles of law relevant to the issues raised by the evidence. [Citations.] The general principles of law governing the case are those principles closely and openly connected with the facts before the court, and which are necessary for the jury's understanding of the case." [Citation.]'" (People v. Breverman (1998) 19 Cal.4th 142, 154.) The obligation to instruct on general principles includes the duty to give instructions on lesser included offenses when the evidence raises a question as to whether all elements of the

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charged offense were present, but not when there is no evidence that the offense was less than that charged. (Ibid.) Such instructions on lesser included offenses are required only when a jury could reasonably conclude that the defendant committed the lesser offense but not the greater one. (Id. at pp. 161-162; People v. Hardy (2018) 5 Cal.5th 56, 98.) The question whether such instructions should have been given is subject to our independent review. (People v. Souza (2012) 54 Cal.4th 90, 113.)

Voluntary manslaughter is a lesser included offense of murder. (People v. Duff (2014) 58 Cal.4th 527, 561.) "Heat of passion, which . . . reduces murder to voluntary manslaughter, arises when the defendant is provoked by acts that would 'render an ordinary person of average disposition "liable to act rashly or without due deliberation and reflection, and from this passion rather than from judgment"' [citation], and kills while under the actual influence of such a passion." (Id. at p. 562.)

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