18. Battered Woman Syndrome

Question 1

BWS

Answer 1

series of common characteristics in women abused by men over long period of time

• Cycles of violence and loving behavior
• Demoralized and degraded, low self-esteem

Question 2

BWS designed to explain mental state

Answer 2

• Can support objective component – reasonable that she didn’t leave abusive marriage
• Can support subjective component – honest

Question 3

State v. Kelly

Answer 3

• Kelly’s husband beat her when he was drunk, one day (in public) he grabbed her and choked her, separated them, she went to look for daughter, he ran at her, she stabbed him with scissors from her purse, indicted for murder
  o State’s story was that she attacked him
• She said self-defense, stabbed him because she thought he would kill her
• Question if expert testimony on BWS is relevant, it is!
• The expert’s testimony, if accepted by the jury, would have aided it in determining whether, under the circumstances, a reasonable person would have believed there was imminent danger to her life (take the 2nd POV for self-defense)
• Show that Kelly could have honestly feared that she would’ve suffered serious harm, but still have stayed with him – rebut general misconceptions

Question 4

State v. Norman

Answer 4

• Shot abusive husband while he was sleeping
• Upheld imminent standard, to get self-defense instruction have to have reasonable fear of imminent death/great bodily harm
• • Most courts have held that imminence element not satisfied by showing actor faced threats of future physical violence, especially they when killed man when sleeping

At common law, if woman killed husband, it was treason (killing lord and master)

Question 5

At common law, if woman killed husband…

Answer 5

it was treason (killing lord and master)