Objective Limb: The Reasonable Man Test
Under section 3 of the Homicide Act 1957 the second question to be answered by the jury in order for the defence to succeed was ‘whether the provocation was enough to make a reasonable man act as did?’. The reasonable man for the purposes of this test had the same sex and age as the defendant and shared such characteristics as affect the gravity of the provocation to the defendant, but characteristics irrelevant to the provocation such as unrelated mental disorders were not given to the reasonable man. Finally, the reasonable man always had reasonable powers of self-control and was never intoxicated.
Read more about this topic: Manslaughter In English Law, History, Voluntary Manslaughter, Former Partial Defence of Provocation
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—Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)