er research on battered women. Although much progress was made during the late 1970's, BWS was still given little support in the courts during the early 1980's. In the 1981 case of Buhrle v. Wyoming, the Supreme Court of Wyoming held that the BWS concept was inadmissible in court. The reasons given by the court for the holding were that BWS was not a developed theory at that time, and it attracted female advocates who were interested turning a profit for their services (79). Even though BWS advocates made great advancements to get the syndrome into the courthouse, they had failed to keep it inside the courtroom. The research done by psychologists during the 1970's, and early 1980's, showed an increasing number of women who suffered from BWS. Although domestic abuse in America was an issue during this time period, it was not given much attention by the government. Once the FBI began to look at their data more closely, they saw a startling number of spousal murders occurring in the U.S. In 1984, spousal abuse caused the deaths of some 1,300 women. The number rose to 1,530 in 1993, and showed a substantial increase in women being murdered by their husbands' (53-54). Statistical data has proven that more women are being battered and killed by their husbands every year. Since domestic abuse is on the rise, many women are choosing to defend themselves from continuous and unlawful abuse by their husband's. The women in the following three cases, although different in many aspects, used the battered women's syndrome theory at some part in their trials. These cases were chosen and analyzed to show the different affects that battered women's syndrome has on the verdicts made possible by our present court system. The resulting verdicts in these cases depend upon the defendant's actions, expert testimony, and the courts' instruction to the jury on defenses. Case #1- State v. VanSickle On November 14, 1994, the Franklin County Court of ...
