... charged with murder, and are also partial defences in that they do not completely absolve the defendant from liability; but instead allow a verdict of manslaughter. It has been suggested that as many as 45 percent of killings are committed by people who lose their temper. The partial defence of provocation has existed for many years in common law, in the case of Maddy 1671 the courts accepted a plea of provocation after a man killed his wife after discovering her committing adultery. The defence of provocation was extended to men who killed their mistresses in similar circumstances as demonstrated in 1943 in the cases of Larkin and Gauthier. However early examples of provocation in case law, suggest that only a provocative act was acceptable, not merely words. In the case of Lesbini 1914, the Courts refused to accept a plea of provocation for a man who shot and killed a ...

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