State v. Edwards
Missouri Court of Appeals
60 S.W.3d 602 (2001)
Larna Edwards (defendant) endured decades of severe abuse from her husband Bill, who beat her and their children, kicked their son down stairs, and repeatedly raped their daughter at gunpoint; Larna had tried to leave before but always returned for lack of money. After an escalating altercation culminated in Bill striking her arm with a lead pipe hard enough that she believed it was broken and believed he was about to kill her, Larna grabbed a handgun kept at their store and shot Bill four times, killing him. She claimed self-defense, but the jury rejected that claim and convicted her of voluntary manslaughter instead of acquitting her outright; she appealed, arguing the jury instructions on self-defense inadequately addressed battered-spouse syndrome.
Whether, when a defendant has repeatedly been the victim of domestic violence and claims self-defense against her abuser, her actions must be evaluated in light of her subjective belief of imminent danger shaped by that history of abuse.