This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

D made a telephone call to the Police to report the death of his fiancée, Tina Wagner. D told the police officer who answered the phone, 'I'm the one who did it * * *,' and '* * * she just drove me crazy and I choked her.' Police officers soon responded to the scene, which was an apartment shared by D, Wagner, and the couple's infant child. Officers discovered Wagner's nearly nude body lying on a bed; a red shirt was wrapped tightly around her throat. An autopsy revealed that Wagner had died of asphyxiation by strangulation. Tests done on the victim's body revealed a urine alcohol content of 0.27 grams per deciliter. D was indicted on one count of murder, a violation of R.C. 2903.02, to which he entered a plea of not guilty. D admitted that he had killed Wagner, but told the jury of statements Wagner had made to him immediately prior to the incident, which upset him greatly. D stated that Wagner told him she had been sleeping with other men and that she no longer cared for him. D testified, 'I have never felt more upset and more mad with anyone [in] my entire life.' D further testified that after he became so upset, the next thing he remembered was 'coming to' after having passed out and finding himself lying on the bed with Wagner underneath him. The trial judge instructed the jury on murder and also voluntary manslaughter. The trial judge charged that if they found that D acted '* * * under the influence of sudden passion or in a sudden fit of rage brought on by serious provocation occasioned by the victim reasonably sufficient to incite him into using deadly force' they must find him guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and that '* * * the burden of going forward with evidence of these mitigating circumstances and the burden of proving them are upon D. D must establish such circumstances by a preponderance of the evidence.' D was convicted, and the appeals court affirmed. D appealed.

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