583 A.2d 718 (Md. 1991)
Steven S. Girouard and Joyce M. Girouard had been married for approximately two months when Joyce died on October 28, 1987.1 Both were members of the army and had met while working in the same building; they married after knowing each other for about three months.2 Their marriage was often tense and strained, and there was evidence that Joyce had resumed a relationship with a former boyfriend after the marriage.3
On the night of her death, Steven overheard Joyce speaking on the telephone to a friend about requesting a hardship discharge because her husband no longer loved her.4 Steven confronted Joyce in the living room, kicked away her plate of food, and then went to lie down in the bedroom.5 Joyce followed him, stepped onto the bed and onto his back, pulled her hair, and began taunting him with statements that she had never wanted to marry him, that he was a lousy sexual partner, that the marriage was a mistake, that she wanted a divorce, and that she had filed charges against him for abuse and with the Judge Advocate General’s Office, which could lead to a court martial.
After Joyce confirmed that she had taken these actions, Steven left the bedroom with his pillow, retrieved a long-handled kitchen knife from the kitchen, and returned to the bedroom.6 He then stabbed Joyce nineteen times.7 Afterward, Steven attempted to kill himself by slitting his wrists with steak knives but survived and called the police to report the incident.8
When the police arrived, they found Steven wandering around outside his apartment building.9 Joyce Girouard was pronounced dead at the scene.10 At trial in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, psychologist Dr. William Stejskal testified that Steven was out of touch with his own capacity to experience anger or express hostility.11 Psychiatrist Thomas Goldman testified that Joyce had a compulsive need to provoke jealousy so that she was always asking for love and at the same time destroying any chance to establish mature love.12 Steven was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to twenty-two years of incarceration, with ten years suspended, followed by five years of probation.13 The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the conviction in an unreported opinion.14 The Court of Appeals of Maryland granted certiorari to review the case.15
Whether the categories of provocation sufficient to mitigate murder to manslaughter should be limited to traditionally recognized categories or determined on a case-by-case basis by the factfinder?16
The Rule of Provocation requires (1) adequate provocation; (2) the killing must have been in the heat of passion; (3) it must have been a sudden heat of passion; and (4) there must have been a causal connection between the provocation, the passion, and the fatal act.17 Adequate provocation is limited to the categories of discovering one’s spouse in the act of sexual intercourse with another, mutual combat, assault and battery, injury to a close relative, or resistance to illegal arrest.18 Words alone, no matter how insulting, do not constitute adequate provocation.19
No. The Court of Appeals of Maryland determined that the categories of provocation should be limited to the traditionally recognized categories rather than determined on a case-by-case basis.20
Applying the rule to the facts of this case, the provocation by Joyce consisted solely of taunting words and minor physical contact. That did not place Steven in reasonable fear of bodily harm due to the significant size difference between them.21 The facts do not warrant broadening the categories.22
The categories of provocation sufficient to mitigate murder to manslaughter should be limited to the traditionally recognized categories.23
Whether words alone can constitute adequate provocation to reduce second degree murder to voluntary manslaughter?24
Words alone, however abusive or taunting, do not constitute adequate provocation to mitigate murder to manslaughter because they are not calculated to inflame the passion of a reasonable man and tend to cause him to act for the moment from passion rather than reason.25
No. The taunting words uttered by Joyce were not enough to inflame the passion of a reasonable man so as to mitigate the crime to manslaughter.26
Applying the rule to the facts of this case, Joyce's statements that Steven was a lousy sexual partner and that she had filed charges against him, among other insults, were words alone and thus inadequate as a matter of law to reduce second degree murder to voluntary manslaughter.27
Words alone cannot constitute adequate provocation to reduce second degree murder to voluntary manslaughter.28