Defending Battered Women on Trial: Lessons from the Transcripts (Law and Society) - Softcover

Sheehy, Elizabeth A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0774826525 ISBN 13: 9780774826525

Publisher: UBC Press, 2014

Synopsis

In 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, and about twelve women per year kill their male partners. By illuminating the cases of eleven women, this book highlights the barriers to leaving violent men and the practical and legal dilemmas that face battered women on trial for murder.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth A. Sheehy is Shirley Greenberg Professor of Women and the Legal Profession in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. She is a leading scholar on the legal system’s treatment of battered women in Canada. In 2013, she was awarded the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Law by the Canadian Bar Association, an annual award that recognizes outstanding contributions to law in Canada.

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0774826525
• ISBN 13: 9780774826525
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416