North Carolina v Norman - Essay Example

? North Carolina v. Norman Introduction Despite all the efforts taken by feminists, women still suffer from terrible discrimination. Even in the most developed countries they are severely abused by men everywhere: at work, in families or simply in the street. When a woman is abused in the street or at work, which are public places, she usually applies to court as there are many witnesses of the abuse and she was abused by an alien. When a woman is abused in her family by her beloved husband, the situation is much more difficult. Hundreds of women are killed by their husbands every year. Others simply suffer violence and humiliation and prefer to keep silence to save their family relations with sadists, who humiliates them every day. Such situations usually end up with a tragedy that is usually a murder. The given paper will consider a case, which happened to a woman who suffered abuse from her husband. Case description Marcia Norman, a woman of 39, had been living with her husband for 25 years. Marcia’s husband was a sadist, who made her work as a prostitute to make money for him. Moreover, she was going through different kinds of humiliation: he forced her to bark like a god and to eat from pets’ plate. She was afraid to apply to police as thought that he would kill her. One day he beat her severely and she tried to commit suicide. Paramedics saved her life, but when they left, her husband kept humiliating her. He went asleep and Marcia took a pistol and killed him. The juridical essence of the case In the given case we deal with domestic violence, which caused murder. Domestic violence is recurring with increasing frequency cycle of physical, oral, emotional and economical pressure on the nearest for establishing power and control over them. The manifestation of the domestic violence strengthen in the situations of crisis, for example, loss of job, deterioration of the relationship between spouses, middle-age crisis, alcoholism, drugs usage. It is essential to remember in 95% of cases physical or sexual violence is not limited to only one case. Moreover, the events, as a rule, develop gradually and the violence becomes more cruel and frequent. There are several types of domestic violence: a) psychological insults: squeeze, intimidation, chasing for the establishing control over children and partners, threatening; control over victim’s activity, communication, everyday schedule, access to different resources (social and medical help, medicines, auto transport, communication with friends, getting education, work); emotional violence; compulsion on the victim to the performance of humiliating actions; b) economic violence: rejecting from keeping children, hiding income, making independent financial decisions. For example, the needs of wife and children are not taken into account when buying food and medicines. As a result children can’t receive the corresponding nutrition and a snatching wife should account for every penny she spends; c) physical violence: kicks, delivering blows, using weapons, causing burns, control over the access of victim to social or medical help. d) sexual violence is a constant sexual pressure, compulsion using threatens, physical power or squeeze (rape, compulsion to have sex in unacceptable forms, in the presence of other people or with other people or children; causing pain by the sexual acts, etc). Social factors of the case Unfortunately, the issue of gender equality is still relevant, thus social factors represent important reasons of domestic violence. Very often one of the spouses, usually a husband, considers himself to be the head of the family and it is important for him to realize his power and establish the control. One of the methods to dominate in the family is creating the conditions in which one spouse depends on another. They can be economic (one spouse tries to control the budget) and psychological (the wife thinks that in the case of the divorce she will suffer more). Domestic violence always affects children negatively as they are brought up in very difficult atmosphere. Many of them try to defend mothers and risk to become victims of violence. In future they may suffer emotional and behavioral problems: anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, nightmares, psychical indisposition. Such children also may be inclined to aggressive behavior, especially in teenage period. Case consideration a) Marcia is guilty The tortures Marcia went through are called domestic violence that is considered to be a serious crime in the United States. The violence she suffered from was psychological, physical, economical and sexual, thus if she had applied to police, her husband would have immediately appeared in prison and her life would become better. The only thing she should have done is to sign the document, which would have allowed the police to arrest her husband. However, considering the life of a woman, she seems uneducated and it was very easy for her to appear under total influence of her husband, who threatened to kill her if she applies to police. Instead of using lawful measures of self-defense, she preferred to commit a murder. Certainly, she had many reasons for that, but the state she lived in does not have a battered-person syndrome statute, which could be used here as a perfect excuse. Thus, the only way to defend herself for Marcia was to plead self-defense as, according of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). However, it may not work here as she was not in danger at the moment of killing as she killed her husband when he was asleep. Self-defense is a very controversial issue, which is considered carefully, thus in this case the woman can be accused of intentional murder (Kopel, 2008). b) Marcia is not guilty The defenders of Marcia can easily prove that Marcia was not guilty in the murder as it can be considered as a real act of self-defense. The woman had suffered from terrible abuse during many years. Moreover, her husband threatened to kill her and one day he would definitely do that. The day he was killed he humiliated a woman severely, beat her and wanted her to die. She tried to commit suicide, she was in a terrible despair. She killed her husband when he was sleeping, because she was afraid that he would took a pistol from her and kill her instead. Thus, it was a self-defense of a victim. There is a term of “imperfect self-defense”, which can be used by defenders to save Marcia from being accused in an intentional murder (Mattingly, 2007). Conclusion The conclusion can be made that the murder happened namely because women usually do not know about their rights. If Marcia had been aware of her opportunities, which are provided by American laws, her husband would have been punished by law and she would not have appeared in the prisoner’s box. There was no need for her to kill her husband, she should have simply applied to police. However, the defenders can present many mitigating circumstances to make Marcia avoid imprisonment. A women suffered terrible humiliation, she was in despair, her life was in danger every day. Thus, the actions of Marcia can be considered self-defense and the fact that she killed her husband when he was sleeping, can be explained by the term “imperfect self-defense”. According to American laws, if the actions of Marcia were recognized self-defense, she would be totally justified. Reference Mattingly, Katy. (2007). Self-defense: steps to survival By Katy Mattingly. Human Kinetics Kopel, David B.; Gallant, Paul and Eisen, Joanne D. (2008). "The Human Right of Self-Defense". BYU Journal of Public Law (BYU Law School) 22: 43–178 Read More