Mccune v. People

Defendants first contention is that the trial judge erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the elements of common-law marriage. The defendant and his former wife, Shirley, were first married in 1948, divorced in 1963, remarried in 1964, and finally divorced again in October of 1968. However, they continued to live together until November 8, 1968, when Shirley moved to another residence, where the homicide occurred two days later. It is the defendants contention that this continued cohabitation after divorce constituted a common-law marriage and that the jury should have been instructed on the elements of common-law marriage in connection with the theory that defendant shot the victim as the result of intense provocation.