His daughter, Ta’berneka Allen, the only eyewitness, told police she heard glass breaking, then her father screaming expletives and asking, “Where’s my money?” according to a police report.
She walked into the living room to find her father punching Robin Washington in the face, the report said.
Robin Washington grabbed a round-edged steak knife from a drawer, but her husband bent it back and tossed it in a drawer, then placed her in a chokehold until she passed out. He rooted through her purse before she quickly came to and he clocked her in the jaw, Settle said.
Then she stumbled around before gripping another kitchen knife and stabbing him in the thigh, clipping his femoral artery.
He tried to swing at her again but fell.
….
Detective Andrew Packer found that Robin Washington acted in self-defense and declined to book her with a crime. Police forwarded the case to Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office, which charged her with manslaughter more than five months after the stabbing.
via Judge acquits New Orleans woman who fatally stabbed husband | News | The New Orleans Advocate.
Disparity of Force, use of deadly force, continuing threat and the D.A. for whatever moronic reasons decides to charge the victim with Manslaughter. In the article, it mentions that the investigating detective was a witness for the defense so that tells you that this case should not even had to be considered for trial.
In darker days, the woman would have gone to prison, no doubt. But that doesn’t mean that there is still a real war against women by people who feel threatened in their acquired power, they just have a little less power and innocent people who only committed the “crime” of self-defense may breathe a tad easier.
FYI, Stand-Your-Ground (SYG) is irrelevant in this case.
All SYG does is remove any otherwise existing duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense.
Even if Louisiana had not adopted SYG in 2006, there would have been no duty to retreat in this case, because the defender was in her home–and Louisiana already had the Castle Doctrine (CD) in effect saying that one has no duty to retreat in one’s home before using deadly force in self-defense.
So, even absent SYG there would have been no duty to retreat. That makes SYG irrelevant under these facts–SYG can’t very well remove a duty to retreat that has already been removed by another legal doctrine.
Had this occurred outside her home or vehicle (LA’s CD covers one’s vehicle, as well), then SYG might have played a role, depending on the particular circumstances. But SYG can have no role where CD already applies.
FYI, I have a videocast going live later today that goes into SYG in some detail–what it is, what is isn’t, and why it matters.
Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
and your podcast, when does it start?
Just went live moments ago. Links to both the videocast (think slide presentation) and podcast (an audio-only version of same content) can be most easily accessed here: http://is.gd/kW9h7I
Feedback always welcome!
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
We have a County Attorney like that here in Des Moines.
http://robertsgunshop.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-is-reason-we-need-to-get-castle.html
He’s up for re-election in November and no one is running against him.
*facepalm*