State V. Stewart Case Study

The actuality of the case of State v. Stewart consist of a variety of mental, physical and emotional abuse in which Peggy Stewart had been “pushed” in her own mind to kill her husband to escape from his toxic and cruel behavior. As a result, the facts of the case are a wide variety that contributed to Peggy’s “imminent danger” state of mind when deciding whether her actions were truly self-defense. These include the abuse at hand, physiological trauma that Peggy experienced, and professional opinions about Peggy’s actions.
An important factor of the case is Peggy Stewart’s significant abuse by her husband, Mike. Additionally, Mike’s abuse was not only to Peggy; but also to her daughter, Carla. After an issue with Carla, Mike refused to let the daughter sleep in a proper room, forced her to do all of the household chores without help from her mother or sister, the family members were also not allowed to speak to her. After a short …show more content…
For example, Dr. Hutchinson’s testimony about Peggy’s “repressed knowledge she was in what was really a gravely lethal situation.” Hutchinson testified that Peggy’s “cycle of violence” contributed to her reasoning for not leaving her abusive husband; further into the text, Hutchinson explained that since Peggy was consistently abused mentally, emotionally and sexual by Mike, then wooed by him, that she only participated in the relationship simply hoping to get “pass” the abuse to what she considered as “love.” Thus, leading Peggy to a frightening state of helplessness. Together with Hutchinson’s statements, Dr. Moldin also held a very important factor in the case. Dr. Moldin described that the oral sexual abuse “would not be trauma sufficient to trigger post-traumatic stress disorder,” with this being said, Moldin did not contribute nor oppose to the theories that Hutchinson described to the jurors about then “battered woman