STF NA MÍDIA

But Mr. Sheehan’s friends
saw another side of him. He
retired in 2002 from the New
York Police Department, and
they said he appeared to be a
devoted father who was frequently
seen by his wife’s
side in church, and who also
worked with youth teams at
his children’s school. After
the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, he helped sift through the
rubble at ground zero, they
said.
Prosecutors typically reject
the battered-woman defense
by arguing that a person in
Ms. Sheehan’s position had
the opportunity to seek help.
An abusive relationship, however
egregious, they argue,
does not justify homicide.
But friends of Ms. Sheehan
say she was too afraid to report
her abuse to the police
since her husband had worked
in law enforcement.
Legal experts said the success
of the battered-woman
defense was mixed.
In November 2010, Shanique
Simmons, a Bronx woman
who had faced years of violent
abuse from her husband,
including rape, was acquitted
on the grounds of selfdefense
after she fatally stabbed
him in the hallway outside
her apartment. The husband
was unarmed, but the
jury concluded that Ms.
Simmons, based on her past
abuse, reasonably feared for
her life.
But in another case in the
Bronx in 1991, a jury found a
woman who had shot her
abusive husband in the head
when he was lying down
guilty of murder.
Holly Maguigan, a law professor
at New York University
Law School who specializes
in abuse cases, noted
that in cases in which abused
women killed their husbands,
they were typically convicted
at the same rate as others
accused of murder.
She said that until feminism
changed social attitudes a-
bout abuse in the 1970s, battered
women who killed their
abusers in self-defense had
been encouraged to plead
insanity or were persuaded to
plead guilty to lesser charges
rather than risk going to trial.
“Today, there has been a
growing recognition that
women who are victims of
violence in some cases have
no choice to kill or be killed,”
she said. “But juries
still can have a hard time
understanding how a wife
can kill her husband when
she is supposed to be the
cool-headed and nurturing
one.”
JUSTIÇA NO EXTERIOR •
THE NEW YORK TIMES (US) • INTERNATIONAL • 18/9/2011
In Blunt and Sometimes Crude Rap, a Strong Political Voice Emerges
By ADAM NOSSITER
DAKAR, Senegal — A revolution
led by rappers says
something about a country’s
politics or its music, or maybe
both.
In Senegal, the political mainstream
appears stagnant
and the musicians anything
but, which explains why laidback
musicians with stage
names like Fou Malade
(“Crazy Sick Guy”) and Thiat
(“Junior”) are leading a
vigorous demonstration movement
against the country’s
octogenarian president, who
does not want to leave office.
The usual regional trappings
of power — a $27 million
monumental statue overlooking
the capital, a new presidential
plane, tinkering with
the country’s Constitution
— have not gone down well
in a poor but proud West
African country used to something
better. They have
led to a season of revolt, on
the North African model, in
this coastal country, a former
French colony.
There were riots this summer
with tear gas and tire burnings,
and several large-scale
demonstrations, one of them
even forcing President Abdoulaye
Wade to back away
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