A few years ago, I represented a young man who was accused of killing his domestic partner—his wife when he came home and found her with another man.  Not only was he accused, he was guilty!!  The young man, Jerry, came into their apartment and jumped onto to wife who still lay on the living room couch.  (Couldn’t the illicit partners have found a more hidden spot??)  Jerry grabbed her around the throat and strangled her to death.  Once he realized what he’d done, Jerry decided to try and cover it up.  He spray-painted his wife’s body with gang signs, wrapped her in a sheet, and laid her body in the street in the middle of the city known to be gang infested.

Of course, the police suspected him immediately and when questioned, Jerry confessed right away.

But what about a defense for him?  Could he use something like manslaughter that is a degree of homicide but is “committed in the heat of passion?”  Across the country, men accused of killing their domestic partners are starting to use the same defense that women have asserted for a long time.  Domestic violence finally led them to act by killing the person abusing them.  Technically, self defense means that you have killed someone but have a defense if you felt “at the time of the killing, you were directly at risk of immediate death yourself.”

Are there really abused husbands?  Of course.  The reverse is far more common, of course, but men are still abused across the country.

I once defended a small man in a misdemeanor assault case who had been accused of assaulting his wife in an act of domestic violence.  He claimed he had acted in self defense.  We went to trial and the “victim” came in to testify.  His wife was about six inches taller than the defendant and out-weighed him by fifty pounds!  During the testimony, it was revealed that she had hit him in the head with a six pack of beer (full cans!!) just prior to his hitting her with a chair.  The jury felt he had acted in self defense and found him not guilty.

My friend and criminal defense lawyer, Robert D. Miller has written well on the subject of killing a domestic partner.  Check it out here:  http://www.sopusa.net/criminal-minds/jealousy-control-murder-men-killing-intimate-partners-often-women/

What do you think?  Have any of you been in a similar situation?  Male or female?