Murder or Domestic Abuse? You be the Judge!

Any abusive, violent, coercive, forceful, or threatening act or word inflicted by one member of a family or household on another can constitute domestic violence.

Domestic violence, once considered one of the most underreported crimes, became more widely recognized during the 1980s and 1990s. During this time, law enforcement and mental health professionals grappled with the severity, complexity, and prevalence of the problem.Various individuals and groups have defined domestic violence to include everything from saying unkind or demeaning words, to grabbing a person's arm, to hitting, kicking, choking, or murdering.

Domestic violence most often refers to violence between married or cohabiting couples, although it sometimes refers to violence against other members of a household, such as children or elderly relatives. It occurs in every racial, socioeconomic, ethnic, and religious group, although conditions such as poverty, drug or alcohol abuse, and mental illness increase its likelihood.

Those who have studied domestic violence believe that it usually occurs in a cycle with three general stages.FIRST, the abuser uses words or threats, perhaps humiliation or ridicule. NEXT, the abuser explodes at some perceived infraction by the other person, and the abuser's rage is manifested in physical violence. FINALLY, the abuser "cools off," asks forgiveness, and promises the violence will never occur again. At this point, the victim often abandons any attempt to leave the situation or to have charges brought against the abuser, although some prosecutors will go forward with charges even if the victim is unwilling to do so. Typically, the abuser's rage begins to build again after the reconciliation, and the violent cycle is repeated.

In some cases of repeated domestic violence, the victim eventually strikes back and harms or kills the abuser. The following links tell the stories of Anieta Natasha Ferreira and Ann-Marie Engelbrecht, two women from South Africa, who were found guilty for murdering their partners.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20050217080200490C242440

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1108728901599B262

http://www.csvr.org.za/gender/docs/Anita%20Ferreira%201.htm

Both were eventually set free, after receiving either a suspended sentence or, as in Ann-Marie's case, a sentence of only five minutes in jail.

Were their actions justified?

Studies done by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa have proven that, pretty much universally, battered women who kill their partners are denied access to existing legal defences to murder. One of the main reasons for this is the historical EXCLUSION of women's perspectives from these defences. One only has to read the stories of scores of women today in American jails, to know that this holds true. The age-old adage that "a woman is a man's property", gave rise to this notion, which is, to this day, exercised in many religious and ultra-conservative communities. The "submission" rule, you know...

These women killed. They murdered in cold blood. Some planned it (both Anieta and Ann-Marie did), some did it on the spur of the moment. Either way, they took a life.

The questions: "Do they deserve the death penalty or even incarceration for premeditated murder, seeing as the time-frame leading up to the actual murder leaves one enough time to reconsider before killing? Should their defense of a pattern of irrational thought, due to continuous abuse, be taken into account when determining whether they could have turned away before murdering? Is it justifiable for some judges to say that "the woman could have left the spousal home" when the abuse got out of hand?" You be the Judge.

These and MANY MORE questions, concerning women who kill their partners, are still hotly debated in courts today. Meanwhile, many women are sitting in jail, having chosen it's rigours and limitations above that of domestic violence. They chose to kill in order to find FREEDOM. Freedom from abuse!

For those interested in the full studies done by the CSVR (SA), please leave an email address and I will forward it to you.

In the meantime, should you agree that domestic violence has no place in a moral society, please consider supporting the MANY clemency applications currently gathering dust on the desks of Governors of State.