Opinion ID: 2607866
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Oregon Criminal Law Revision Commission

Text: Prior to 1971 Oregon law employed the concept of adequate provocation/heat of passion to distinguish murder from manslaughter. Section 506 of Deady's Code provided: If any person shall, without malice express or implied, and without deliberation upon a sudden heat of passion, caused by a provocation, apparently sufficient to make the passion irresistible, voluntarily kill another, such person shall be deemed guilty of manslaughter. With only minor grammatical changes, the same statute survived through various revisions [15] to former ORS 163.040: (1) Any person who, without malice express or implied, without deliberation, and upon a sudden heat of passion caused by a provocation apparently sufficient to make the passion irresistible, voluntarily kills another is guilty of manslaughter. In its consideration of this aspect of the substantive law of criminal homicide, the Criminal Law Revision Commission (Commission) was greatly influenced by the work of the drafters of the Model Penal Code. The language of the Model Penal Code drafters that we have quoted just above was copied with approval by the Commission in its Commentary. See Proposed Oregon Criminal Code, Final Draft and Report, July 1970, p. 89. The Commission recognized, however, as Justice Holmes had argued, [16] that there is a need for establishing a standard to fix an average conduct to protect the general welfare. A purely subjective test would subtract from incentive to maintain self-control. The Commission chose an intermediate position: The draft section also introduces a larger element of subjectivity, though it is only the actor's `situation' and `the circumstances as he believes them to be,' not the defendant's scheme of moral values, that are thus to be considered. The ultimate test, however, is objective; there must be `reasonable' explanation or excuse for the actor's disturbance. Thus, the draft retains a certain degree of the objective standard but turns away from the present Oregon law which apparently gauges the accused's acts on a purely reasonable man test without reference to the accused's circumstances or relevant personal characteristics. Proposed Oregon Criminal Code, Final Draft and Report, July, 1970, p. 89.