Self-Defense Jury Instructions in Trials of Battered Women Who Kill Their Partner (From Legal Responses to Wife Assault: Current Trends and Evaluation, P 258-285, 1993, N Zoe Hilton, ed. -- See NCJ-144041)

• NCJ Number: 144050
• Author(s): A J Tomkins; M K Kenning; J P Greenwald; G R Johnson
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examines issues relevant to the plight of the battered woman who becomes a criminal defendant because she has killed her partner.

Abstract

The authors first discuss the debate about whether or not a battered woman should be legally culpable for killing her partner. Although resolving this debate is beyond the scope of this paper, the debate has led some to suggest that one way for the law to address the psychosocial complexities and realities of women killing their abusers is to reform the traditional self-defense rules that are available to counter prosecutions for murder. The authors discuss an especially interesting and controversial reform proposed by Professor Charles Ewing (1987, 1990), which he calls "psychological self-defense." After the paper describes psychological self-defense, the authors review the sparse empirical literature on whether there would be any practical effect if the self-defense doctrine was changed to include psychological self-defense. One study that involved mock juror decisions under psychological self-defense instructions found that such instructions promoted acquittals at the expense of convictions on the lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter. Recommendations for future research are offered. 1 table and 76 references