General benchmarks to determine whether a homicide case could be contrued to fall into the category of Voluntary Manslaughter.

[I]f the act of killing, though intentional, be committed under the influence of passion or in heat of blood, produced by an adequate or reasonable provocation, and before a reasonable time has elapsed for the blood to cool and reason to resume its habitual control, and is the result of the temporary excitement, by which the control of reason was disturbed, . . . then the law, out of indulgence to the frailty of human nature, . . . regards the offense as of a less heinous character than murder, and gives it the designation of [voluntary] manslaughter. [Maher v People, 10 Mich 212, 219 (1862).]

[F]or an act to be considered voluntary manslaughter, the defendant must kill in the heat of passion, the passion must be caused by adequate provocation, and there cannot be a lapse of time during which a reasonable person could control their [sic] passions. The provocation must be sufficient to cause the defendant to act out of passion rather than reason, but it also must be sufficient to cause a reasonable person to lose control, not just the specific defendant. People v Pouncey, 437 Mich 382, 389; 471 NW2d 346 (1991).