ABSTRACT
The debate concerning women who kill violent/abusive male partners, and the inability of existing murder defences to encompass their experiences, has been on-going for the last decade (see Chapter 9). Feminist groups such as Justice For Women, Southall Black Sisters and Rights Of Women have worked tirelessly to support individual women charged or convicted of murder whilst publicly exposing the inadequacies of the legal system and campaigning for legal changes (see Chapter 10). The success of a number of women’s appeals against murder convictions (for example, Kiranjit Ahluwalia, Sara Thornton and Emma Humphreys) appears indicative of a shift in both the public’s and the law’s understanding of women’s homicidal responses to ‘domestic’ violence. But is this enough? All three women were initially convicted of murder. Emma Humphreys spent ten years in prison before being released. Sara Thornton had her first application for leave to appeal rejected. As a member of Justice For Women, I believe that a new defence to murder is required: one that acknowledges women’s experiences of, and responses to, domestic violence in much the same way that self-defence or provocation were constructed to reflect men’s experiences of imminent attack or provocation.
