Research Paper on:
Defending Homicide of a Spouse

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
defendant was not seeking to save him or herself from death or injury. The following information should enforce the possibility of use of the provocation defense. Bibliography lists 7  sources. BBspsmrR.doc SPOUSAL HOMICIDE: Can It Be Defended? Written by B. Bryan Babcock for the Paperstore, Inc., November 2000 Introduction The homicide statistics  on spousal killings are frighteningly high. A July 1994 report by the Department of Justice, Murder in Families, found that 6.5% of all murder victims(425)were killed by their spouses. Husbands  killed wives in 60% of these cases and wives killed husbands in 40%. Only in this one category, women killing husbands or male intimates, does the rate of female violence  begin to equal the male rate of violence. In all other instances, it is substantially lower. Many of these homicides are self-defense killings, not adequately identified, or dealt with by  our legal system. The recent large number of grants of clemency to battered women who killed their abusers seems to recognize this fact. Thesis statement: A history of violent  abuse at the hands of a spouse is a legitimate defense in a case of spousal homicide. According to Angel (1996), the facts we perceive and the conclusions we draw  from them, differ depending on our backgrounds and knowledge. Most women either have firsthand knowledge of woman abuse, or are aware of its widespread nature. Because women have failed to  tell their stories of physical abuse, men who do not engage in abuse, are often unaware of it and those who abuse do not perceive it as wrong. According to  Horder (1996), the significance and use of a successful provocation plea as an extenuating ground is usually that it reduces murder to manslaughter, despite the fact the defendant intended to-and