Defending Battered Women on Trial: Lessons from the Transcripts

493 Pages·2013·2.505 MB·English

by  Elizabeth A. Sheehy

DEFENDING BATTERED
WOMEN ON TRIAL
Law and Society Series
W. Wesley Pue, General Editor
The Law and Society Series explores law as a socially embedded phenomenon.
It is premised on the understanding that the conventional division of law
from society creates false dichotomies in thinking, scholarship, educational
practice, and social life. Books in the series treat law and society as mutually
constitutive and seek to bridge scholarship emerging from interdisciplin-
ary engagement of law with disciplines such as politics, social theory, hist-
ory, political economy, and gender studies.
A list of titles in the series appears at the end of the book.
DEFENDING BATTERED
WOMEN ON TRIAL
LESSONS FROM THE
TRANSCRIPTS
Elizabeth A Sheehy
© UBC Press 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written
permission of the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Sheehy, Elizabeth A., author
Defending battered women on trial: lessons from the transcripts /
Elizabeth A. Sheehy.
(Law and society series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-0-7748-2651-8 (bound). – ISBN 978-0-7748-2653-2 (pdf). –
ISBN 978-0-7748-2654-9 (epub)
1. Abused women – Legal status, laws, etc. – Canada – Cases. 2. Assault and
battery – Canada – Cases. 3. Self-defense (Law) – Canada – Cases. 4. Defense (Criminal
procedure) – Canada – Cases. 5. Trials (Assault and battery) – Canada. 6. Trial
transcripts – Canada. I. Title. II. Series: Law and society series (Vancouver, B.C.)
KE8925.5.S54 2013 345.71’025553 C2013-906378-1
KF9322.S54 2013 C2013-906379-X
UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program
of the Government of Canada (through the Canada Book Fund), the Canada Council
for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation
for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications
Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada.
UBC Press
The University of British Columbia
2029 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
www.ubcpress.ca
Contents
Acknowledgments / vii
Introduction / 1
1 Angelique Lyn Lavallee / 19
2 Bonnie Mooney / 57
3 Kimberley Kondejewski / 88
4 Gladys Heavenfire and Doreen Sorenson / 126
5 Donelda Kay, Denise Robin Rain, and Jamie Gladue / 161
6 Lilian Getkate / 199
7 Margaret Ann Malott and Rita Graveline / 244
Conclusion / 296
Appendix / 320
Notes / 337
Select Bibliography / 436
Index / 442

Acknowledgments
This book was inspired by the ground-breaking work of Judith Herman,
Elizabeth Schneider, and Evan Stark, whose insights and analysis have shaped
my thinking, and by Kim Pate and Lee Lakeman, whose advocacy with and
for battered women provide leadership for us all.
I am deeply grateful to many people who read, edited, and commented
on the draft chapters of this book: Randy Schmidt of UBC Press, my struc-
tural editor Kevin Burns of Seven Stories, my partner Dean Beeby, and my
dear friend Elizabeth Pickett, who each read every word with care, several
times, and rallied me when I faltered; my friends and colleagues Constance
Backhouse, Susan Boyd, Kim Brooks, Emma Cunliffe, Nora Currie, cj fleury,
Holly Johnson, Darlene Johnstone, Kim Pate, Rakhi Ruparelia, Louisa Russell,
and Julia Tolmie, who provided valuable feedback and encouragement on
individual chapters; my research assistants and former students Leighann
Burns, Martha Butler, Mary Anne Carter, Charlene Davidson, Julie Des-
marais, Shushanna Harris, Christel Higgs, Amy Jackson, Maya Krishnaratne,
Lindsay McIntosh, Kerry McVey, Jeewon Min, Samar Musallam, Frederico
Pasquarelli, Martin Tooke, Johnna Van Parys, and Stacey Wells, who helped
me find the women and document their stories. Thank you all. Forgive me if
I have left anyone out. Of course, any errors are mine.
Funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council,
Standard Research Grant, and the Law Foundation of Ontario is gratefully
acknowledged, as is the support I have received from the University of
Ottawa Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. I also want to thank the
women of the Women’s Writing Retreats at the University of Ottawa;
these retreats are funded in part by the Centre for Academic Leadership.
I am so fortunate to be surrounded by such brilliant and sustaining col-
leagues! And thank you, cj fleury, for gracing the book cover with your gor-
geous sculpture.

DEFENDING BATTERED
WOMEN ON TRIAL