Court of Appeals of Maryland· 3/12/2004

State v. Smullen

Citations

844 A.2d 429
380 Md. 233
2004 Md. LEXIS 118

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

recognizing defense of battered child syndrome, despite the absence of a statute, by analogy to statutory defense of battered spouse syndrome
recognizing the clinical definition that a “battered woman” is one who is repeatedly subjected to physical or psychological behavior by her abuser in order to coerce her to do something he wants
noting that the battered-spouse syndrome is a novel scientific theory that would have been subjected to Frye had not the Maryland General Assembly expressly made it admissible, in a case addressing whether battered-spouse syndrome could be used as a self-defense
\The requirement of relevance applies not just to factual evidence but to expert testimony as well.\
“Maryland recognizes two varieties of self-defense—the traditional one that we now call perfect or complete self-defense and a lesser form sometimes referred to as imperfect or partial self- defense.”
“[I]f the defendant is confronted by a person with a gun, he may reasonably, even if incorrectly, believe that the gun is loaded and presents an imminent danger and shoot the person in self-defense.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Bell, Raker, Wilner, Cathell, Harrell, Battaglia, Eldridge

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Cited by

37 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

32 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

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