Description
Book SynopsisIn the landmark Lavallee decision of 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that evidence of battered woman syndrome was admissible in establishing self-defence for women accused of killing their abusive partners. This book looks at the legal response to battered women who killed their partners in the fifteen years since Lavallee.
Elizabeth Sheehy uses trial transcripts and a case study approach to tell the stories of eleven women, ten of whom killed their partners. She looks at the barriers women face to just leaving, the various ways in which self-defence was argued in these cases, and which form of expert testimony was used to frame women's experience of battering. Drawing upon a rich expanse of research from many disciplines, she highlights the limitations of the law of self-defence and the costs to women undergoing a murder trial. In a final chapter, she proposes numerous reforms.
In Canada, a woman is killed every six days by her male partner, an
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In Defending Battered Women on Trial: Lessons from the Transcripts, Sheehy offers a compelling and startling account of the criminal justice system’s failure to protect women from the men who batter them. She begins the book by situating the issue in its historical legal context. Making the work accessible to an audience much broader than just those well-versed in criminal law, Sheehy provides the reader with ample background to understand the legal context in Canada both prior to and in the years following the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1990 recognition of battered women syndrome in R. v Lavallee.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1 Angelique Lyn Lavallee
2 Bonnie Mooney
3 Kimberley Kondejewski
4 Gladys Heavenfire and Doreen Sorenson
5 Donelda Kay, Denise Robin Rain, and Jamie Gladue
6 Lilian Getkate
7 Margaret Ann Malott and Rita Graveline
Conclusion
Appendix; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index
