Heat Of Passion

The sad incident happened after he reportedly found the deceased in bed having a good time with his wife. The man, claims that he had made efforts to bring an end to this heinous act by pleading with the deceased to stay away from his wife and not destroy his marriage. But all the pleas fell on deaf ears until he caught them on each other this fateful day. In the heat of passion he chased him with a stick and clubbed him to death.

Well, plain and simple that is murder. But should he have simply walked away in shame? I do not think there is a single man alive that can give an accurate answer as to what he would do if he found himself in same situation.

When Mr Benjamin Fakande gets charged to court for murder, his only defence would be provocation. The truth is, provocation would have been a very sane and good defence to his murderous action. But the question is, would that suffice in this scenario?

For defence of provocation to avail him, all the ingredients to show that he indeed was provoked must be present. The Courts do not look at the defence of provocation objectively, that is referred to as the ‘reasonable man test’. It is weighed in a subjective manner. It is not measured based on what a reasonable man would do in that circumstance. Rather it is measured based on what the man in the accused frame of mind would do.

The test is based on a varieties of standard like level of education, exposure to life, his profession etc. The courts do not expect a banker to act as a mechanic would, neither do the courts expect a doctor to think or behave like a bus driver.

But how would Mr Benjamin Fakande explain that he was still under provocation when he was chasing the deceased down the street. For the defence of provocation to avail him, he must prove that it was a ‘spur of the moment’ action that left him with no time to think his actions through before embarking on his action. If indeed he had time to pause for the slightest moment to think before hitting the deceased I would indeed find it hard to say that he was still under provocation.

Written by Adedayo Matti.

Editor's note: All opinions expressed in this piece are completely that of the author's and do not in any way express the interest of pulse.ng