Court Opinion

ID: 9613209
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:15:18.251678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:26.805200
License: Public Domain

Gregory, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent as to Division 3 of the majority opinion because I believe evidence of 28 years of physical and psychological abuse by appellant’s former husbands was relevant to the issue whether she acted with the fears of a reasonable person under the circumstances. If appellant was a battered woman that was a relevant circumstance.
Appellant’s defense to the charge of murder was that she acted in self-defense reasonably believing it necessary to take the life of the victim to save her own. Her testimony, which may not have been believed by the jury, but must be considered in determining the relevancy of 28 years of mistreatment by two former husbands, was that Brown had tried to kill her on several occasions immediately preceding the incident in question. She testified he became extremely jealous during the day resulting in his attempting first to drown her in the river and then on the way back to the apartment drove the car off *127the road threatening to kill her in that manner. Back at the apartment he again made jealous accusations and slapped her. She called her mother who advised her to leave the apartment which she tried to do, but Brown again slapped her and kicked her. A pistol in his hand fired when she hit him. At that point she ran out of the house and asked a bystander to call the police. Brown came out, threw a pistol at her, and got into her car saying he was going to LaGrange. She asked him not to take her car and reached into the vehicle for the keys. He pulled another pistol from inside his shirt and announced he was going to kill her. She then fired the fatal shot.
Decided June 10, 1986
Reconsideration denied July 2, 1986.
Edward T. M. Garland, Janice A. Singer, for appellant.
William J. Smith, District Attorney, Tasca W. Badcock, Assistant District Attorney, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Dennis R. Dunn, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
We recognized the battered woman syndrome in Smith v. State, 247 Ga. 612 (277 SE2d 678) (1981). Later, in Sanders v. State, 251 Ga. 70, 74 (303 SE2d 13) (1983), we said that, “under appropriate circumstances a woman who kills her husband or boyfriend and raises the defense of self-defense may, as evidence of whether she acted in fear of her life, have an expert witness describe the ‘battered woman syndrome,’ apply that model to the facts, and conclude that the woman falls within the profile.” I would hold today that the history from which the battered woman syndrome developed in a case such as this is relevant evidence. I do not believe this history becomes irrelevant merely because it relates to other marriages or other boyfriends. The question is whether or not the syndrome is present. I point out that whether relevant evidence can be excluded where it becomes unduly burdensome on the court to hear or is repetitious is not before us.