Provocation As A Defence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Provocation As A Defence - Essay Example The researcher states that today, under the English common law the act of provocation as a defence has been considered as a vali, since last many centuries especially in cases of murder and wherever it has been proved to be a valid defence worth consideration then in that case the murder charge has been converted to man-slaughter. The killings done by the accused has been condoned because according to the judge and the jury it was done in a state of anger aroused by some or the other kind of provocation. Provocation as a defence has been going on since the medieval times. The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, which reported in 1953, concluded that the defence was, in some respects, too rigid and exclusionary. The English Law Commission has recently published its final proposals for a reformed law of provocation. The recommendations come in two parts: situations where accused acted in response to a fear of serious violence or in response to words or conduct that constitute †Å"gross provocation.† In cases of fear of serious violence, accused will be convicted of second degree murder, provided a person of the accused’s age and of ordinary temperament, in the given circumstances might have reacted in the similar way. This development is welcome and seems entirely suitable to cover without strain domestic violence cases. It also caters to the demands of the long drawn of several activists who had been crying hoarse over the years over the defence of provocation as being flawed and bloated.