In 1940, Daniel Sickles was found standing over Phillip Key’s dead body with a gun in his hands and his face soaked in blood. Key was Sickle’s wife’s boyfriend when Sickle found out about him he was filled with rage and at the spur of the moment killed him. Sickles was guilty and was sent to jail until his trial. Although, Sickles and his lawyer used temporary insanity due to his wife’s infidelity as their defense and hence Sickles was set free as the court decided that Sickles did not deserve punishment as he had no control over his mind and body while the crime was being committed.
Crimes of passion are committed when the perpetrator has no control over his mind and hence has no idea what he is doing. Sickles was temporarily insane due to the shock of finding out about his wife’s infidelity and committed the crime at the spur of the moment with his mind having no control over his actions. Also, he was not capable of thinking about the consequences of his actions. Sickles was as angry as a mob and hence his emotions took over his capacity of reasoning and he lost complete control over his actions and committed the crime. Sickles did have a feeling of regret after he committed the crime
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Sickles wasn’t able to take control over himself while killing Key. He could not reason out his actions including the right and wrongs of going ahead with it. Also, he was not fully aware of the consequences of his actions. The perpetrator of a crime of logic mainly does not have regret after committing the crime. This shows that he isn’t ashamed of doing it and has no regrets. Sickles did feel guilty after the commission and hence this shows that he wasn’t in the right mind while doing it. This shows that he has no particular intension of killing Key. Therefore, the reason behind committing a crime of passion justifies it and so the perpetrator should not be punished for