Court Opinion

ID: 9697519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:19:07.323073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:33.253260
License: Public Domain

NIX, Chief Justice,
concurring.
Although I concur in the result reached by the majority today, I write separately to state my belief that evidence regarding the cumulative effects of wife-beating and general spousal abuse must be admissible to bear upon the “reasonableness” of the conduct by a party who claims self-defense to a charge of spousal homicide.
*423Theorists have long espoused the concept of a separately defined claim of self-defense for the woman who is repeatedly brutalized by her husband. Advocates believe that the traditional theory of self-defense fails to account for either society’s cultural expectations relating to gender or the specific problems inherent in battered women. Crocher, Equality and Self-Defense, 8 Harv. Women’s L.J. 121, 128 (1985). See also Cipparone, Defense of Battered Women, 135 U.Pa.L.Rev. 427 (1987). These theorists agree that social and legal attitudes toward women have rendered them helpless in abusive situations.
With respect to battered women in particular, society has condoned wife abuse, ignored or denied its existence, or blamed the wife. The legal system has reinforced this by not providing effective assistance and only selectively enforcing applicable laws. [T]hese “social misconceptions of battered women often blind the [jury] [sic] to the reasonableness of a battered woman’s use of defensive force.”
8 Harv.Women’s L.J. at 130 (footnotes omitted).
To support the battered woman’s argument in a proper case, expert testimony can be introduced to show how a battering relationship generates different perspectives of danger, imminence, and necessary force. Id. at 132. Expert testimony can also explain why the defendant stayed in the relationship, why she never called the police, or why she feared increased violence. The behavioral patterns that emerge in a study of battered women are collectively referred to as “learned helplessness.” 135 U.Pa.L.Rev. at 432. This learned helplessness and its resulting feeling of inability to control the beatings lead to a process of victimization, rendering the woman psychologically paralyzed and unable to perceive the existence of any available options.
Clearly, society’s historic refusal to acknowledge or interfere with instances of domestic violence has forced the victims into an impossible situation. As a result of traditionally being unable to obtain help, these victims, all too frequently, resort to killing their abuser, perceiving this to *424be the only solution available to eliminate the potential for future abuse. However, traditional concepts of self-defense do not include this particular cycle of behavior, but instead focuses on the immediacy of the perceived harm rather than the systematic and cumulative damage inflicted on the abused individual. Tailoring self-defense claims to recognize the “battered woman syndrome” would thus be an effective means of finally providing legal protection for a woman forced to defend herself from further attack.
Section 505(a) of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code states:

Use of force justifiable for protection of the person:

The use of force upon or toward another person is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary for the purpose of protecting himself against the unlawful force by such other person on the present occasion.
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 505(a) (emphasis added).
Section 501 of the Code defines “belief” as meaning “reasonable belief” and this standard has been observed in the decisions of this Court. Commonwealth v. White, 492 Pa. 489, 424 A.2d 1296 (1981); Commonwealth v. Webster, 490 Pa. 322, 416 A.2d 491 (1980); Commonwealth v. Black, 474 Pa. 47, 376 A.2d 627 (1977); Commonwealth v. Nau; 473 Pa. 1, 373 A.2d 449 (1977); Commonwealth v. Light; 458 Pa. 328, 326 A.2d 288 (1974); Commonwealth v. Daniels, 451 Pa. 163, 301 A.2d 841 (1973). Thus, while section 505(a) of the Crimes Code, in conjunction with section 501, sets forth an objective standard for determining whether the use of force was justified, i.e., reasonableness, this Court must necessarily examine the surrounding circumstances, as they impact upon the assailant, in order to make that determination. That is, we must ascertain whether the “reaction” was reasonable considering the circumstances known to the defendant. 18 Pa.C.S. § 505(a). See also, Comment, The Battered Spouse Syndrome As A Defense To A Homicide Charge under The Pennsylvania Crimes Code, 26 Villanova L.Rev. 123 (1980-1981).
*425Presently, the law of this Commonwealth does not recognize the battered woman syndrome as a separate and distinct defense to homicide, and I am not proposing that we do so now.1 What I am suggesting is that, when presenting all relevant evidence in a proper analysis of justification under section 505(a), the defendant may offer evidence relating to the battered woman syndrome as additional probative information relating to the “reasonable-belief” requirement.
In Commonwealth v. Watson, 494 Pa. 467, 431 A.2d 949 (1981), this Court held that where
there has been physical abuse over a long period of time, the circumstances which assist the court in determining the reasonableness of a defendant’s fear of death or serious injury at the time of the killing include the defendant’s familiarity with the victim’s behavior in the past.
494 Pa. at 472, 431 A.2d at 952.
Further, in Commonwealth v. Stewart, 483 Pa. 176, 394 A.2d 968 (1978), this Court allowed the introduction of evidence of those factors existing prior to the homicide which bore on the defendant’s emotional state of mind at the time of the homicide.
Our function as interpreters of the statutory expression of legislative will requires constraint on our part, but not to the point of closing our eyes to relevant evidence which in this case concerns a debilitating phenomenon, the effects of which have long been known but have only recently received a name and the appropriate recognition. It is significant to distinguish between instances when the Court exercises its interpretive judgment and those where the Court examines the propriety of legislatively expressed will. While this Court may not embark upon a process of judicial legislation, we are free to interpret that legislation upon *426examination of the intent of the legislature. The interpretation suggested herein, that evidence of battered woman syndrome should be admitted evidence of reasonableness, reflects legislative intent in the area of self-defense.
I am not suggesting that once a defendant has established that she was a victim of the deceased’s habitual emotional and/or physical abuse, the matter is resolved. I only recommend this as one factor to be considered in determining the reasonableness of the defendant’s belief at the time of the homicide that deadly force was necessary. Accordingly, I concur in the result.
FLAHERTY and McDERMOTT, JJ., join in this concurring opinion.

. In Commonwealth v. Stonehouse, 521 Pa. 41, 555 A.2d 772 (1989), without commenting on the desirability of creating a separate Battered Wife Syndrome defense, this author dissented with the majority's recognition and implementation of such a defense, due solely to that issue being addressed, sua sponte, by the Court without being raised by the immediate parties to the action.