GEORGIA SUGGESTED PATTERN JURY INSTRUCTIONS (SPJI 2013)

GA SPJI 2.10.41  Voluntary Manslaughter; Statutory Definition

A person (commits voluntary manslaughter when that person causes the death of another human being under circumstances that would otherwise be murder if that person acts solely as the result of a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a reasonable person.  (If there should have been an interval between the provocation and the killing sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, which the jury in all cases shall decide, the killing may be attributed to revenge and be punished as for murder.)

In that connection, I charge you that the burden of proof is upon the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the offense is not so mitigated.