Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Kristen Simek
M1 Written Assignment
Family Violence and Abuse
Empire State College
Professor: Denise Dipace
6 June, 2015
In this case, the Defendant, Marcia Norman (Defendant), shot and killed John Norman
(Mr. Norman) while he slept after Mr. Norman had beaten the Defendant on the day in
question. Mr. Norman also had a history of beating the defendant on a regular basis in the
past.
Mr. Norman and the Defendant had been married twenty-five years and Mr. Norman had
been beating the Defendant since about five years after they were married. Over the
course of the marriage, the abuse had gotten so severe that the defense psychologist
characterized it as torture, degradation, and reduction to an animal level of existence,
where all behavior was marked purely by survival The Defendant was in constant fear of
Mr. Norman and she did not seek help for fear of serious reprisal by Mr. Norman,
possibly including death. On the day of the killing, Mr. Norman had made the Defendant
sleep on the floor until one of the couples daughters asked if the Defendant could watch
her baby. When the baby began to cry, the Defendant took the child to her mothers
house. At her mothers house, the Defendant found a gun, took it back to her home and
shot Mr. Norman.
Argument: 1) Why Marcia Norman is guilty of the murder of her husband.
The question that is imposed in this matter is: Does the victims passiveness at the time of
the killing preclude the Defendant from asserting self-defense?
According to the final verdict in this case held the answer is most certainly, yes. The law
states, The right to kill in self-defense is based on the necessity, real or reasonably
apparent, of killing an unlawful aggressor to save oneself from imminent death or great
bodily injury at his hands. Imminent danger is defined as that which one cannot be
protected from by the calling for help or the protection of the law. In the case of Marcia
Norman, the evidence failed to show that the defendant was confronted with imminent
death or great bodily harm when the she actually shot her husband. Her husband at the
time of the shooting was asleep, and the evidence tended to show that the defendant had
ample time and opportunity to utilize other methods to avoid the abuse of her husband.
She had gone to the police that day, but was too scared to file charges. She also could
have left while he was sleeping, which further implicates her stance using self defense
as her reasoning to not be guilty of killing her husband. The methods which Marcia
Norman could have used to avoid the abuse she was experiencing from her husband
would include:
The use of the mandatory-arrest laws; many states have passed the mandatory-arrest
which would have signaled the right authorities and put in place the agencies that could
have helped Marcia Norman. Some of the advantages of this course of procedure are:
taking the victims to a safe place away from the abuser, filing a police report, assisting
with getting your belongings out of the house protected, medical assistance if needed,
information on other services from domestic violence agencies; getting an order of
References:
Byrd, S. (1991). DUKE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE & INTERNATIONAL LAW.
Retrieved June 3, 2015 from:
http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1302&context=djcil
Savage, J. Battered Woman Syndrome. The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law.
2006. Geo. J. Gender & L. 761
Wallace, H., Roberson, C. Family Violence, 7th Edition (2014, 2009, 2004) Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle, NJ