In the 80's and 90's eight women living in Massachusetts had murdered their abusive partners. Most had claimed "Battered Woman Syndrome" as their defense. This lowered many of their charges from murder to manslaughter. In the 1990's these women, after all meeting at a prison domestic abuse support group, petitioned the court for an early release. Most were granted. Only one of these eight women however, was LGBTQ. Her name, Debra Reid. Debra had to fight extra hard because it was incredulous to everyone else how a lesbian could suffer battered woman syndrome. She couldn't have possibly been abused the way the other woman were at the hands of a man!

Our True Crime Quickie is from Australia and the first case in their history of a gay man using the Battered Woman Defense.

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233

Outside the U.S.:https://www.hotpeachpages.net/a/countries.html

Promo for: Conspiring to Argue

https://www.patreon.com/c/rainbowcrimes

Intro: Shire Girl by David Fesilyan
Outro: Beating Heart by David Renda

Resources:

https://everloved.com/life-of/meekah-scott/
https://www.cryan.com/blog/20171018.jsp
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/01/11/Lesbian-asks-commutaion-of-manslaughter-conviction/1524726728400/
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203903308-11/necessary-voices-battered-lesbian-fights-recognition-ann-russo
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/in-the-dream-house/characters/debra-reid
https://www.milforddailynews.com/story/news/2004/12/19/time-for-healing-struggle-framingham/41179483007/
https://researchers-admin.westernsydney.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/94927095/uws_18916.pdf
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/state/1997/12/16/freed-convicted-killer-arrested-in/50584371007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z114736e004400v114736b0047xxd004765&gca-ft=159&gca-ds=sophi
file:///C:/Users/beyon/Downloads/Emilyn_Hazelbrook_Thesis%20(1).pdf
https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/court-of-appeals/volumes/31/31massappct917.html
https://www.deseret.com/1998/3/20/19370247/once-abused-woman-found-not-guilty-in-purse-theft/

https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLRev/1997/13.pdf
https://researchers-admin.westernsydney.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/94927095/uws_18916.pdf





https://researchers-admin.westernsydney.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/94927095/uws_18916.pdf
https://researchers-admin.westernsydney.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/94927095/uws_18916.pdf

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