It should be Manslaughter, I think. Each of us has the ability to engage in a crime of passion and I don't believe we are hardened criminals that would kill again. It IS, I believe, a temporary insanity.

In your example, stated in the debate description, it isn't quite the same thing, but you still have no right to kill them.

But, if, for example, you find someone killing a parent, sibling, other family member, friend, or something like that, I can totally understand you killing them in turn.

I'm not sure, but does that count as a crime of passion? If so, then it shouldn't be the same as other murders. According to my moral code, and that of many, many people, that is just. For all you know, you're next. I can totally understand doing something like that.

It really depends, though, on the case-to-case circumstances. No two crimes are exactly alike, especially when you're dealing with something so raw and emotionally charged as this, and you must take all factors into account. You can't really make blanket statements, because, in some situations, I'm sure we would all do the same.

Wolf and kuk have good points as always.

Almost anyone is capable of killing another person, but most of us don't.

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But the circumstances in which a person will commit murder varies greatly between individuals. Some would find that even in life and death situations they cannot kill another person. This is rare because from an evolutionary stand point, it doesn't make sense. And on the other extreme you have serial killers who have no sense of empathy, and have learned through circumstance to enjoy killing people. (It takes more than a messed up cerebrum to become a serial killer, one also has to have suffered abuses in the past, at least that's current theory. Some sociopaths lead quiet productive lives, and you would never know they're is something wrong with them.)

But there's a difference between killing someone to save another life or your own, and killing someone because you're in a highly emotional state. That's not an accurate comparison, and also, usually killing someone to save a life doesn't lead to a sentence, and certainly not manslaughter, unless you have a super crappy lawyer and someone else has a Cochrin type.

While it's possible, and likely that a large portion of the population would commit manslaughter in the situations described, walking in on someone cheating, etc. this is not behavior that should be encouraged.

This should be manslaugher. No one's life is in immediate danger, one is taking action based strictly on a base emotional instinct. While it is easy and right to feel some sympathy for one who takes this course of action, it is not easy to do the correct thing, which is treating them the same as one who has planned a murder.

If this person took a life in a highly emotional state, then there is no gaurantee they will not be in a highly emotional state again, and take another life.

In this case life in prison is not a punishment, or revenge, the person knows and likely regrets horribly what they have done. But in this case it is a matter of separating one who has shown themself to be capable of murder, from the general population, where circumstances may lead to the death of other relatively innocent people.