When exactly does a crime of passion become premeditated murder?

Answer 1

Dictionaries commonly define a 'crime of passion' as a serious crime committed without premeditation while influenced by extremely strong emotions, such as rage.

Some sources clearly indicate a crime of passion is one generally involving sexual jealousy, which is of course not necessarily the case.

Dictionaries differ on the subject of premeditation, as do legal decisions. This means little, since for very many dictionary definitions one can find another which differs, however slightly, and for each legal precedent one can almost always find an opposite.

For a few dictionary definitions of 'crime of passion' see the links below.

As with most questions involving applications of law, it is impossible to give any kind of broad answer to what constitutes a crime of passion or whether, and if so, how, premeditation might be involved. All legislation differs between countries, and between regions within countries. and each individual legal case is unique. For example, three seemingly similar cases might be heard in the same city on the same date, with three quite different outcomes.

So it is not only impossible, but dangerously misleading to attempt to define any legal situation in a few sentences. There are 'legal dictionaries' accessible in hard copy and online, but these simply define words and phrases. They are dictionaries, not legal guides in any sense of the term, and should never be used as such.

Answer 2

This is one of the areas of the law that falls into a 'gray' zone. More than a set amount of time such as minutes or hours, it seems to be the behavior of the suspect that defines what constitutes passion or premeditation. This may fall to the prosecutor to prove if there was in fact a 'cooling off' time and if the killer had time to get control of their emotions or not.