This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

D was charged with killing her husband. She was tried and convicted of first-degree murder. That conviction was overturned. D was tried again and now convicted of second-degree murder. The trial court disallowed the testimony of Dr. Lenore Walker, a clinical psychologist who would have testified as an expert with regard to the battered woman syndrome. The purpose of such testimony would have been to give the jury a basis for considering whether D suffered from the battered-woman syndrome, not in order to establish a novel defense, but as it related to her claim of self-defense. D was convicted and appealed.

The legal issues presented in this case will be displayed here.

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Legal analysis from Dean's Law Dictionary will be displayed here.