does anyone know?

Question

What is meant by the provocation defence?

Answer 1

In 16th century England, anyone charged with murder was considered to have acted out of malice. Murder was a serious offence, and the penalty for any murder was death. To reflect that not all murders are the same and that not all cases warrant the death penalty, the distinction of manslaughter emerged. This allowed the courts to take into account certain human frailties. One such frailty involved the idea that the accused had been provoked into committing the act, because the victim had said or done something that caused the offender to loose control--as was deemed to be the case in the instance of a "chance medley." For the provocation defence to be invoked, the nature of the provocation had to fall into one of four categories:

(1) grossly insulting assault;
(2) attack upon a relative or a friend;
(3) unlawful imprisonment or restraint of an Englishman; or (4) a man coming upon his wife engaged in adultery.

In order to benefit from the defence, the accused had to prove that, during his response to the provocation, he was sufficiently deprived of self-control and had acted without malice.

Answer 2

The provocation defense is an attempt to secure an acquittal by convincing the jury that the accused temporarily and suddenly lost control due to excessive provocation by another party.

See here for details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provocation_(legal)

Hope this helps!