Human Rights A Day

Supreme Court of Canada allows battered-woman syndrome as a murder defence.In the early hours of August 31, 1986, Winnipeg citizen Angelique Lyn Lavallee shot and killed her common-law partner, Kevin Rust, in the back of the head. Lavallee, age 22, had been in an abusive relationship with Rust for years. During fights that lasted for days, he would beat her severely, necessitating numerous visits to the hospital for treatment. A jury acquitted her of murder, but the Manitoba Court of Appeal requested a new trial, saying that the defence’s “battered woman syndrome” testimony should not have been allowed. The phrase refers to a condition of “learned helplessness,” in which a woman has lost control of her environment and is unable to defend herself. On May 3, 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Lavallee’s acquittal, formally allowing the controversial syndrome as a defence for the first time. Although Lavallee shot Rust as he was leaving the room, the court and jury accepted the argument that she thought he