Crime of Passion

This post is part of Criminal Law inspired by the movie played by Baron Geisler and Maui Taylor. I still remember the film because a co-starrer of Baron received an acting award in it. The theme of the film is the crime of passion thing.

Criminal law has been the source of the crime of passion definition. It is the infidel spouse who must be surprised and not the innocent spouse. Why is there element of surprise? The law is involved between a married man, woman, and a paramour or a lover outside marriage. There is one case that a husband caught her wife in the act having a carnal knowledge with her paramour. The unfaithful wife was surprised. The husband killed the paramour. The concept of the crime of passion comes in.

With that, it must be the infidel or the unfaithful spouse must be surprised in the situation. It only requires that the death caused be the proximate result of the outrage overwhelming the accused. Besides, this is the only instance where the law allowed a person to take the law into the hands of the perpetrator. And what is the punishment for the murderer? Distierro. This is not even a punishment but a means to protect the killer from the family of the victim in case of reprisal or retaliation. Distierro is not a penalty because there is no criminal liability to speak of.