When the courts do not allow spousal abuse to be considered a factor during trial, the courts are basically saying that the abused is not important. Their experiences and traumas are not relevant.
The video that I found is clips from a movie about 13 women who have killed their abusers, and are sentanced to life in prison.
The movie Til Death Do Us Part will go into more detail on the homicide cases, along with information on the prison system that will not allow parole for women who have killed their abusers that have already served a substantial amount of time in prison.
It is important to hear the stories of these women, and it is even more important for changes to be made in the criminal justice system. The system is set up on the basis of men. When the courts only look at the fact that the woman had a weapon and the man did not, the courts are not taking into account the fact that men are usually stronger than women, especially with upper body strength.
Since courts have not looked at the fact that women who have killed their abusers did so out of self defense, and after perhaps years of being abused, then these women are being treated unfairly.
The battered woman syndrome is not something that has been allowed to play a role in court hearings. This is substantial evidence!
Til Death Do Us Part will be a powerful movie, and will give cause to rethink the current standard of punishment for women who have killed their abusers.
To order this video, click on the link below.
I think that the most disappointing part is how unknown these sorts of facts are.
It is disheartening to hear about these women who are victims, but are put away for life for defending themselves. It seems to me that there needs to be some sort of law made where this sort of “murder” is not considered in the same light as other types of what the prosecutors are calling premeditated murders.
Activism does not seem to be enough, because it is not spreading the word enough in my opinion. This sort of thing needs to be mentioned on a larger scale.
But, welcome to America, where the marginalized group is once again being ignored. God forbid a woman kills a man who is abusing her. It is almost like the courts are saying that she should have just waited until he killed her.
I will start out by saying that, a film like this needed to be released years ago. This is not a new problem, or even a problem that is newly on the rise. It has, and will remain a problem, until things similar to this are dealt with.
It is almost sickening to think that as soon as women become the killers, the tables are turned, yet their cases are hardly ever taken into consideration. Men are continously aloud to physically and mentally abuse their spouses, yet when women finally fight back, and in this case, kill their abusers, they are called angry and agressive. The fact that there were years of trama done to these women is ignored.
Honestly, it seems as though the term “battered woman syndrome” was just a term thrown out there to shut women up, so maybe, just maybe, they would stop their “comlaining”. I feel as though if this problem would have been delt with along time ago, then it may have never escalated to the point that it has.