Professional Documents
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Facts: Petitioner saw the deceased standing outside a drugstore, and just walked up to him, greeted him hello,
and shot him to death, stating that it was revenge for the victim's killing of the Petitioner's son 9 or 10 months
prior (victim was acquitted). After Petitioner was arrested, he applied for writ of habeas corpus, seeking to be
let out on bail pending disposition of the murder charge against him, arguing that the proof of his guilt of a
capital offense is not evident or presumption great.
Holding: The court denied bail, holding that uncontradicted testimony showed that proof of his guilt of the
capital offense was evident, and he was not entitled to bail as a matter of right.
• 9-10 months was considered more than sufficient cooling time for a reasonable man (after the fact
victim's alleged killing of petitioner's son)
• A deliberate killing committed in revenge for injury inflicted in the past, no matter how near or remote,
was murder.
Class Notes
• The longer time goes by, the less likely it is you lost control of your facilities.
o More time - more like premeditation rather than heat of passio
• CL - cool down concept
o Way to get around cool down problem if there's a long time period
• Re-define what the provoking event is, then decide if that is enough to establish whether
that event was reasonably provoking
• First, look for provocation, then if no cool down period.
• Whether or not something is sufficient to be provocative, is both subjective and objective
o Objective - it would provoke a reasonable person
o Subjective - the person themselves should also actually be provoked
• Cool down - also must be both objective and subjective
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