VICTIM PROVOCATION AND MURDER: WHEN IS THE SLAYING OF A WIFE BEATER JUSTIFIED?
A sergeant in a crime scene unit, known as a “nice guy” and “family man” who coached Little League and was active in his church, retires from the police department after 20 years of service. But on the morning after he breaks his wife’s nose, as he is
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shaving in preparation for a vacation, she says she will not accompany him. She then shoots him five times with his .38-caliber service revolver and then six more times with his second gun, a high-powered Glock. Although police records do not show any history of domestic disturbances at their address, he repeatedly beat her viciously, according to their grown children, members of their extended family, domestic violence counselors, and medical records. Both the son and daughter say that they feared he would murder their mother, and feel liberated by their abusive father’s death; they don’t attend his funeral. She is not convicted. (O’Shaughnessy, 2008; and Dwyer, 2011)
A woman is raped on her way home from work. Twenty years later she marries a wealthy widower, but soon discovers he served two years in prison for murdering his first wife. For 10 years, this jealous, possessive man controls her every movement, beats her, makes unreasonable sexual demands, and mocks her lingering rape trauma by repeatedly sneaking up from behind and grabbing her. One day he threatens to do to her what he did to his first wife. After he falls asleep, she shoots him in the head. She is convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to five years in prison. But with a new lawyer, she appeals, is granted a second trial, and presents a defense of extreme psychological impairment. After the jury becomes deadlocked, she pleads guilty to manslaugh- ter, and the judge sentences her to probation. (Abramson, 1994)
A woman tries to cover up her black eye and bruises when she goes to the office. She tells her co-workers that her arm is in a sling because she fell down the stairs. One night her alcoholic boyfriend throws beer cans at her, begins to beat her, and threatens to kill her. She runs into the kitchen to call 911 but he reaches the phone first and clubs her with it. She frantically reaches into a kitchen draw to find some- thing to use to fend him off. She grabs a knife, stabs him with it once, and he dies. Jailed and charged with murder, a women’s resource center mobilizes to
support her. She is allowed to plead guilty to invol- untary manslaughter and is sentenced to probation. (Kristof, 2014a)