Who is the real murderer?

August 24, 2007 at 9:11 am (abuse against women)

I read this story from the Cape Argus over and over again hoping I’d somehow made a mistake. Even now I’m hoping someone is going to point out I’m actually a silly cow who misunderstood what it meant.
Please, someone, tell me I’m wrong.
Tell me I’m wrong about the fact that a magistrate told a woman who had stabbed her abusive lover 104 times she could’ve left it two jabs.
Explain how I’ve misread and that he’s not saying these words, “If she told me ‘I wanted to kill him because he attacked me and I wanted to get rid of him because of the abuse’, I would’ve acquitted her.”
Point out that I’m mistaken about the fact that he said, after finding out she has a history of abuse, “Can this be undone at this level? It’s part of her upbringing.”
Please, I beg you, tell me this is not true.
Because if it is, dear reader, then this woman is being fucked over once again. Not only did she endure years of abuse as a child, then as a woman, she’s now being abused by a law that does not recognise her years of pain and suffering.
This magistrate said she didn’t have to stab him 104 times even after he’d tied her up and forced her to watch him rape a young relative. Yes, he obviously knows what it’s like to be abused.
He is wise. He is smart. He knows that just two stabs would’ve been enough to purge the anger, distress and levels of insanity you reach after years of agony.
To say I am upset about this is a gross understatement. I can’t believe how he’s saying her years of abuse has made her a danger to society as if it’s her fault she was violated in that way.
Then she was a victim; now she’s a victim. And the law is murdering her as much as she murdered the man who abused her.
Someone, please, please, tell me I’m wrong.

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