Commonwealth v. Zukoski

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• defendant testified that victim threw glass of beer and swore at him; he knocked her to ground and then kicked her repeatedly until she died
• no reasonable provocation for kicking forty-four year old victim as she lay on the ground and any threat from thrown glass had passed when defendant struck victim and knocked her down
• victim throwing glass at defendant not reasonable provocation to trigger his kicking her to death, especially because threat from thrown glass had passed
• no provocation instruction warranted where victim swore and threw glass at defendant; threat from thrown glass had passed before defendant struck victim
• any threat from glass victim threw passed after defendant struck victim and knocked her to ground
• trial judge has ‘range of discretion in determining whether a suggestion of recent contrivance exists in the circumstances’

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).