 The court found that the State of New York had reclassified provocation ("extreme emotional disturbance") as an excuse (an affirmative defense requiring proof by preponderance of the evidence), rather than a circumstance negating the mental element (mens rea) which the prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, as was the situation in "Mullaney v. Wilbur" (1975).During his brief and unstable marriage, the appellant, Gordon Patterson, Jr., became estranged from his wife, Roberta.Roberta resumed an association with John Northrup, a neighbor to whom she had been engaged prior to her marriage to appellant.