State Vs.

Gordon QLD AUS(2005)

Jaymie Gagen was 16 and was dating Matthew Gordon, a 17 year old alcoholic.
They were married when they were 18 and that's when the abuse began. He constantly
told her how worthless she was and frequently beat her. One night Matthew, kicked,
scratched and slapped Jaymie until she lost consciousness. Lying in a pool of her own
blood, she awoke to Matthew yelling and kicking her telling Jayme he'd kill her and their
4 month old daughter Jacqueline. When Matthew returned home that night intoxicated, he
started beating Jaymie again, she ran to his truck, got one of his guns and hid from him
behind a tree. Matthew ran inside and returned with baby Jacqueline. He held the baby,
holding a knife to her throat and threatening to kill her if Jaymie didn't come back inside.
Jaymie shot Matthew. He died instantly.
Your job to decide what happens to Jaymie. I affirm,
Resolved: It is morally permissible for victims to use deadly force as a deliberate response to
repeated domestic violence.
For clarity, I offer the following definitions:
Domestic violence: (Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edition) assault or other violent
act committed by one member of a household against another. Physical force unlawfully
exercised with the intent to harm.
Taken together with the word repeated we see that the resolution pertains to
cases in which violent abuse has become a consistent pattern of behavior.
Deadly Force: (Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edition) Violent action known to
create a substantial risk of causing death or serious bodily harm
Deliberate: (Merriam Webster Dictionary) characterized by awareness of the
consequences.
That said, I would like to draw out attention to the wording of the resolution, in which it is stated
in a response to which rules out any assumptions of premeditation as it is a response.. The
Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy defines morality as a descriptive word which refers to
some codes of conduct put forward by a society. Since morality fundamentally dictates the
interaction between human beings within a society, the value standard of this round should be
Justice, defined as giving each his due, since giving people what they deserve is an
fundamentally good goal for any moral doctrine seeking to govern human interaction.
In order to achieve justice, I offer the criterion of the prevention of further violence
Contention 1: Minimizing violence is just
As a general rule, hardly anyone would disagree that violence is bad. Practically any
philosopher, be it John Stuart Mill, John Locke, or Immanuel Kant, has some form of moral
doctrine which proves that violence is a bad thing. Thus, the reduction of something inherently
bad (like violence) is the most fundamental way to pursue the value of giving each his due.
Though there are certainly other components to achieving perfect justice, reduction of the
fundamental evil of violence is the single most important task which trumps all other criteria of
justice. In other words, before we can even begin to consider other criteria of a just society such
as gender equality or freedom of speech, we must first minimize violence.
Contention 2: Violence is minimized through self- defense, and hence the victim's use of
deadly force.
Critical to this point is the understanding of the severity of domestic violence.
According to the American Medical Association, injuries sustained from domestic
violence account for 25-35%of visits, by women to emergency rooms annually.
Violence Against Women, Vol. 6, No. 5, p. 534, May 2000
The psychological trauma caused by a pattern of battering is also significant:
According to the report The Health Care Providers Role in Domestic Violence
Battering is the single most frequent reason why women seek attention at hospital
emergency department
Howard Holtz and Kathleen Furniss, The Health Care Providers Role in Domestic
Violence, Trends in Health Care, Law & Ethics, Vol. 8, No.2, Spring 1993, p.47.
Furthermore, it must be understood that killing an abusive husband doesnt just eliminate
violence for the battered woman, but also benefits the children.
According to Legal Director Barbara Hart in her work "Children of Domestic
Violence: Risks and Remedies": Over half of all battering husbands also batter their
children.
Thus, it is clear that using deadly force in cases of repeated domestic violence reduces violence
by ending the torture of the victim and preventing violence to others.
Contention 3: Deadly force is the only practical method of self-defense and minimizing of
violence for domestic abuse victims
One needs to look no further than Jaymie's story: Matthew, and other people who repeatedly beat
their spouses, CAN kill them with their bare hands.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 30% of all female homicide victims
are murdered by intimate partners (i.e. ex or current boyfriends and husbands).
Furthermore, simply leaving the abusive husband is by no means an easy option for several
reasons. First, in the vast majority of cases, the victim of abuse is financially unsupported.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice: 50% of homeless women and
children are fleeing abuse.
Second, escape from domestic violence is hindered by the development of Battered Wife
Syndrome, a widely acknowledged psychological condition. As described in the landmark case
State v. Kelly, cycles of repeated domestic violence create in women a psychological condition
of learned helplessness, in which they begin to view the abuser as an almighty and inescapable
power. It should be emphasized that this is not just a form of insanity, but a recognized disorder
which develops in a large percentage of abused women.
97 N.J . 178, 478 A.2d 364. Supreme Court of New J ersey. STATE of New
J ersey v. Gladys KELLY. J uly 24, 1984.
Finally, according to the same source its actually far more dangerous to leave than to stay as
women who flee their abusers have a 75% higher risk than those who stay.
A truly frightening statistic in which it was found that:
More than 17% of domestic homicide victims had a protection order against the
perpetrator at the time of the killing.
Florida Governors Task Force on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Florida Mortality
Review Project, 1997, p. 46
It boils down to simple logic - if someone is willing to risk years in jail for murdering or severely
beating a spouse, is a piece of paper really going to hold them back? Where the government
cannot intervene to prevent violence, it is up to the victims.