Testimony on battered woman syndrome (BWS), as a widely used self-defense strategy, has been accepted in all state courts of America. However, courts often hold that expert testimony on the BWS is inadmissible in a presented evidence where (1) it is irrelevant and immaterial to the issue of whether defendant acted in self-defense at the time of the battery; (2) the subject of the expert testimony isn't within the understanding of the jury; (3) the BWS is not sufficiently developed as an accepted scientific knowledge to warrant testimony under the guise of expertise; and (4) its prejudicial...
Testimony on battered woman syndrome (BWS), as a widely used self-defense strategy, has been accepted in all state courts of America. However, courts ...
