Murder v. Voluntary Manslaughter

Voluntary manslaughter is a common law concept whereby an intentional killing is reduced from murder to manslaughter because the killing occured after an adequate provocation and before a suffienct cooling time had passed. The traditional approach to provocation is set forth in the more modern case, Girourard: only certain provocative acts would suffice to reduce an intentional killing from murder to manslaughter. By contrast, the modern approach is set forth in the older case, Maher: Juries should decide whether a reasonable person in the defendant's position would have been provoked under the circumstances. As we read these cases and the MPC approach, consider whether voluntary manslaughter is a sensible concept and, if so, how it should be delimited.