Family conflicts, especially those leading to homicide, represent complicated court cases. On the one hand, the difficulty is that the offender and victim are spouses. On the other hand, family quarrels often occur without witnesses, so the evidence collection becomes more complex. Nevertheless, the State v. Perez case shows the irrefutable guilt of Perez, the defendant who killed his wife by stabbing her forty-three times. Therefore, rejecting the case would be more reasonable because the evidence does not support the defendant’s imperfect argument.
In the case, Perez attempted to prove that he committed involuntary manslaughter in defending himself from his wife, Delores. However, she only raised the knife above her head and said Perez not to make her use it, which may suggest that she did not mean to cause the defender any harm (Justia US Law, 1992). Although the offender asserted that he had defended himself, it can be deflated by the number of wounds on Delores’ body (Justia US Law, 1992). This fact demonstrates that a person cannot inflict such a number of wounds in defending himself or herself.
In addition, the defender’s attempt to rely on his alleged mental health condition does not find any documented support. On the contrary, the medical record shows no severe psychic illnesses, though the offender had a psychotic frenzy at the time of committing a crime (Justia US Law, 1992). Nevertheless, Dr. Schulman stated that offenders could distinguish what is right and wrong in such cases (Justia US Law, 1992). Furthermore, Dr. Barnett conducted psychological tests and assessed Perez as having no mental disorders, which can be regarded as reliable evidence coming from an independent source (Carl L Britt, Jr., 2020). Given this, the murder should be considered intentional.
To conclude, the court should reject the case and evidence from Perez because it neither excuses the offender’s behavior in the conflict nor proves his compromised mental health. Moreover, Perez’s statements can be regarded as irrelevant because the findings of the psychiatric assessment do not support them. There are many aggravating facts that prove the manslaughter was intentional but not caused by the necessity to defend oneself, including the number of wounds on the victim’s body, the defenselessness of the offender’s wife, and others.
References
Carl L Britt, Jr. (2020). Why the court may reject evidence during a criminal trial. Carl L Britt, Jr. Attorney at Law. Web.
Justia US Law. (1992). State v. Perez. Justia US Law. Web.