Potter v. Commonwealth

John Grover Potter, Jr., was convicted of second degree murder and his sentence fixed at imprisonment for fifteen years. On appeal, he contends that the trial court erred in granting, over his objection, an instruction which read:

The Court instructs the jury that where the killing, although intentional, is done in passion in the [heat] of blood, upon sudden provocation by gross indignity, the law reduces the offense to manslaughter. But, however great the provocation may have been, if there has been a sufficient time for passion to subside and for reason to return, the homicide is murder.

Timot…