Barbara Sheehan and the Battered Women's Defense: When Killing is Legal

Submitted by anthony on Fri, 2011-10-07 23:20

Article here. Excerpt:

'Michael Dowd, Sheehan's lawyer, has made a career of defending women who kill their tormentors. In a 1991 paper discussing the battered women's defense, he wrote about the difficulties of surmounting the skepticism that women in such cases face.

"The denial of the equality of women in cultures which perceive such treatment as both acceptable and lawful is essential to the existence of domestic violence," Dowd wrote. "This denial is the cornerstone of men's violence against women and ultimately operates to deny battered women a fair trial when they are successful in fighting back against their abusers."
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It is not easy for battered women to obtain such verdicts. The fact that the defendant remained in the relationship, rather than fleeing or seeking help, can work against her. Prosecutors will often ask whether the defendant reported the abuse or told anybody.'

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... can he just kill her, too?

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2011-10-07 23:48

But that's the dangerous precedent women are setting--what's good for the goose and all that.

Murders by "battered women" greatly resemble "honor killings" in the Middle East, only with the genders reversed. In the ME, men kill women for adultery, which is any sexual misbehavior. We in the West think these are barbaric.

Here, women kill their husband over "abuse." It's an all-purpose excuse. She claims it and is usually the only witness against the dead man--who cannot speak in his own defense. As the Mary Winkler case illustrates, the practice is becoming more and more accepted. She kills her husband while he's sleeping, claims abuse, spends a couple of months in jail, and now has custody of her children again.

I don't know if Winkler has any sons, but I wonder if they--or other young men--got the message: if you grow up and marry a woman, she has the right to kill you. Yes, she might spend a little time in jail, but then she'll go on with her life as if it never happened.

But given the emphasis on "equality" in our culture, it's not unreasonable for a man to conclude it's also okay for a husband to kill his wife and claim abuse. The idea is out there and ideas have consequences. The idea it's okay to kill your spouse--except in self-defense--has dangerous consequences. What goes around comes around.

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Submitted by el cid on Sat, 2011-10-08 17:58