Opinion ID: 2344370
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Justification or excuse.

Text: Defendant does not contend that his murders were justified, but submits that a degree of `excuse' is provided by his longstanding and severe mental problems. He suggests that those mental problems, combined with his troubled childhood, underlay [defendant's] apparent loss of control and inhibition that resulted in the instant murders. The State, however, suggests that there is no evidence that the Hazards provoked defendant in any way so as to justify his killing them. We need not abandon caution to conclude beyond any doubt that defendant had no justification whatsoever to kill the Hazards. If at all relevant, defendant's reference to his childhood and his mental problems is more appropriately considered as evidence of mental disease, defect or disturbance, not as a justification for his actions.