The defendant beat his victim with a wooden object and attempted to burn her with a blowtorch. He also shot her friend. The victim survived but sustained several injuries requiring hospitalization. The friend died in the hospital. The defendant was indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder, first-degree assault, and tampering with physical evidence.
The trial court did not err in declining the defendant’s request for a renunciation jury instruction, as there was no evidence that the defendant made any efforts to abandon his commission of the crime or took any steps to avoid its commission prior to the shooting. Rather, he completed the act of shooting his girlfriend, but failed to kill her as he had intended.
After taking the evidence into account, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the perpetrator’s behavior established a course of conduct that met the definition of stalking and that, given his arrest for violating the trial court’s IPO, it was not unreasonable to assume that absent court intervention the conduct was likely to continue in the future. Affirmed.
The alleged perpetrator’s due process rights were violated, thus warranting the matter involving the entry of a DVO to be remanded to the trial court for further proceedings. Vacated and remanded.
The family court had discretion to choose which testimony to believe and which to disbelieve with regard to a DVO, when denying wife’s petition. Affirmed.
The family court’s findings were sufficient and supported by substantial evidence to enter a DVO. Affirmed.
Research makes clear that intimate partner violence (IPV) (physical, sexual, and psychological or emotional harm between current or former intimate partners), negatively affects children as well as adults. Although IPV-related reports frequently come to the attention of child protective services (CPS), there is no nationally agreed upon legal standard or practice guidance for child protection responses to maltreatment reports, nor sufficient research documenting that reaction.
The purpose of this study was to document rates of rape acknowledgment (labeling rape as rape rather than using a minimizing label) and corresponding mental health correlates using the minority stress framework in a sample of youth: specifically including a sample of racially diverse sexual and gender minority young adults. Participants were 245 young adults who identified their sexual orientation as under the bisexual umbrella. Of the participants, 159 (65.2%) identified their gender identity as nonbinary.
This study explored the effect of victim video statements (VVS) on the rate of early guilty pleas by the defendant in cases of domestic violence. The data analysis explored two factors: (a) being bailed or remanded and (b) the seriousness of charges. VVS cases resulted in 44% early guilty pleas compared with 30% for those with written statements. VVS have a statistically significant increase in the odds of making a guilty plea.
With 43 attacks claiming over 200 victims, mass killings reached a forty-year high in 2019 (AP/USA TODAY/Northeastern University, 2019). Defined as the killing of four or more individuals (excluding the offender) within 24 hours, mass murders are incredibly rare events that account for less than 1% of all homicides (Krouse & Richardson, 2015). Despite their rarity, mass killings disproportionately impact policy
