A Win for Battered Woman Defense by Alex Snider

Barbara Sheehan of Queens was found not guilty of killing her husband, a former police sergeant. She had survived 24 years of physical and emotional abuse before shooting him 11 times. The verdict is monumental for battered woman defense and for domestic abuse activists in general when so often domestic abuse is ignored or normalized. Hopefully it's a sign of changing times and attitudes.

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Repeat After Me:

"...contrary to pervasive narratives about women who "feel guilty" after a consensual act inventing rape charges, the reality is that women who feel shame, or fear, or regret after an actual rape frequently re-imagine the encounter as consensual, because admitting rape even to themselves is so difficult. Rapists are exponentially more likely to indirectly benefit from women "consenting" after the fact as a survival strategy than are innocent men likely to be victimized by false rape charges."
(Via Melissa McEwan at Shakesville)