## Facts

- Steven Saunders Girouard killed his wife, Joyce M. Girouard, during a domestic argument on October 28, 1987, after a brief marriage marked by conflict.
- Girouard overheard his wife on the phone suggesting she sought a hardship discharge because her husband did not love her; an argument followed.
- In the bedroom, Joyce taunted Girouard and made repeated insulting statements, including that she did not love him, the marriage was a mistake, demands for divorce, disparaging sexual comments, and assertions that she had reported him for abuse and he would be court-martialed.
- Joyce also engaged in minor physical acts while Girouard was on the bed, including stepping on his back and pulling his hair.
- Girouard left the bedroom, retrieved a long-handled kitchen knife from the kitchen, returned to the bedroom, and stabbed Joyce 19 times, killing her.
- Girouard attempted suicide and later contacted police; officers found him distraught.
- At trial, Girouard sought a jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter based on heat of passion from provocation; the trial court declined to give an instruction predicated on verbal provocation.
- Girouard was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment, with 10 years suspended; the intermediate appellate court affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether Maryland should expand “adequate provocation” beyond traditional common-law categories and allow juries to determine adequacy case by case.
2. Whether words alone, or words combined with minimal physical contact, can constitute legally adequate provocation requiring an instruction on voluntary manslaughter rather than second-degree murder.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed the judgment and left the second-degree murder conviction undisturbed.
- The court retained Maryland’s traditional category-based approach to legally adequate provocation.
- The court held that words alone, unaccompanied by conduct showing a present intention and ability to cause bodily harm, are not legally adequate provocation to reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter.
- The court concluded that the wife’s verbal insults and threats, together with the minor physical contact shown, were insufficient as a matter of law to require a voluntary manslaughter instruction.

## Legal Principles

- Voluntary manslaughter mitigation requires: (1) legally adequate provocation, (2) actual heat of passion, (3) absence of a reasonable cooling-off period, and (4) a causal link between provocation, passion, and killing.
- Adequate provocation is assessed by an objective reasonable-person standard, not by the defendant’s particular psychological sensitivities.
- Maryland confines “adequate provocation” largely to recognized common-law categories (including discovery of a spouse in the act of adultery, mutual combat, and assault and battery).
- Mere verbal insults, taunts, or threats of future consequences do not constitute adequate provocation; minimal or trivial physical contact does not satisfy the assault-and-battery category for mitigation.

## Conclusion

The court held that extreme verbal abuse and trivial physical contact during a marital dispute did not amount to legally adequate provocation under Maryland law, so the trial court properly declined to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter and the second-degree murder conviction was affirmed.


Girouard v. State, 321 Md. 532, 583 A.2d 718 (1991)