By Susan V. Stromberg
WeNews correspondent
Monday, July 12, 2010
Barbara Sheehan will soon be on trial in New York for the murder of her husband, a former police officer she says consistently abused her. A key question remains: Will expert testimony about the effects of abuse be allowed? Part 1 of 2.
NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)--Years of abuse came down to a single moment: Raymond Sheehan, a retired New York Police Department officer, pointed a gun at his wife and threatened her life. She grabbed his second gun and fired first.
Now, Barbara Sheehan faces 15 years to life in prison for the 2008 murder of her husband, a man she says battered her regularly and would have killed her.
"There's no doubt in my mind that he would have killed me," she said of her deceased husband. "He would have killed me and my children, and then probably himself."
The state of New York has charged her with second-degree murder and two counts of weapons possessions. At issue in Barbara Sheehan's case, in which a trial has not yet been scheduled, is whether a court order excluding any expert testimony about her abuse will be overturned. That order, by the now-retired Justice Arthur Cooperman, is currently under review.
Her attorney, Michael Dowd--who has represented more than 25 women charged with killing their abusers in his 40 years of practice--says such evidence is critical to allowing the jury to understand the effects of her years of abuse and the threat she believed she faced the moment she fired the gun.
Expert Testimony Introduced
Evidence of battering and its effects began appearing in criminal cases in the late 1970s, and usually involves the introduction of expert psychiatric testimony.
In the mid-1980s, a watershed case ruled that evidence of battering was admissible to help juries assess a defendant's perception of danger posed by the abuser, as it can help explain not only how a battered person might think, react or behave, but also may place the behavior in an understandable light.
Barbara Sheehan says she acted in self defense, so under New York State law she must demonstrate to the jury that she believed that she was in imminent danger of deadly physical force and that her belief was reasonable.
Expert testimony would be introduced in this case to explain the impact of constant domestic violence, says Dowd. Without that he doubts the jury will be able to place themselves in Barbara Sheehan's position, either to determine the honesty of her fear of imminent danger of being killed or to determine the reasonableness of this belief.
The jury will also have questions about why she stayed if she thought her life was in danger or why she believed the last threat was different from any other time, says Dowd.
"The No. 1 question is 'why didn't she leave'," said Dowd. "Some people cannot understand or perceive circumstances existing where you can't leave."
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