The famous journalist Jorge Zawazky murdered the medical doctor Arturo Mejía Marulanda in august 1933 in Cali city, Colombia. Two years after the crime, the victim’s family started a legal process against the aggressor. The defense lawyer was Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, who used the mental state of the journalist as a juridical attenuant. This argument was supported by two recognized psychiatrists: Edmundo Rico and Miguel Jimenez López. This article discusses how both psychiatrists used “scientific” arguments to show that an “uncontrolled passion” justified Zawadzky’s criminal action. &nbsp