Battered Women Charged with Homicide: Expert Consultation, Evaluation, and Testimony

Abstract

ABSTRACT Expert testimony on “Intimate Partner Battering and its Effects” (IPBE) and “Battered Woman Syndrome” (BWS) is offered in courtrooms to assist the factfinder in making more informed decisions in cases involving battered women defendants. Such testimony situates a battered woman’s behavior in the context, thereby making sense of behavior that might appear dysfunctional, inappropriate, culpable, or otherwise impossible to understand from an objective frame of reference. Expert participation in battered women’s criminal cases can be influential at many junctures in the case. This paper explores potential roles for expert consultation. such as educating prosecutors and defense attorneys, potentially influencing charging/plea decisions. Forensic evaluation reports document a battered woman’s history and responses to IPV that can be relied upon by defense attorneys to develop more effective legal defense strategies pertinent to IPV history. Experts may assist in jury selection and provide general or case-specific testimony that may provide an alternative framework within which a defendant’s thoughts, actions, and behaviors can be more appropriately understood within the context of intimate partner battering. At the post-trial stage, experts may assist in sentencing, state and federal post-conviction proceedings, clemency, probation, and parole proceedings. Post-conviction and habeas corpus claims often relate to expert testimony that was either not offered at trial in a battered woman’s first trial, or excluded by a judge. In those cases, an expert may assist by preparing a declaration in support of a habeas corpus petition and/or testifying at any subsequent hearing to explain the myriad ways in which expert participation might have led to a more lenient outcome in the original trial.