9th Circuit overturns conviction over battered woman syndrome

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a federal judge was wrong not to let an Arizona woman provide expert testimony regarding battered woman syndrome as part of her defense against charges that she used false identification to purchase a firearm.

In a ruling published Thursday, a divided three-judge panel of the court said Lashay M. Lopez should have been given the opportunity to call an expert witness in the field of domestic abuse as part of her duress defense to three federal charges relating to the gun purchase.

"[E]xpert testimony on BWS serves an important role in helping dispel many of the misconceptions regarding women in abusive relationships," 9th Circuit Judge Jay S. Bybee wrote for the majority.

"Such evidence was vital to Lopez's defense, which hinged on persuading the jury that she acted only out of an objectively reasonable fear," the judge added.

Lopez was prosecuted for purchasing a firearm for her abusive boyfriend by using her twin sister's identification after she said he threatened to shoot her and her family if she didn't buy a gun for him.

She was on probation for a felony drug conviction at the time.

Before trial, Lopez said her expert's testimony would have provided the court and the jury information about how abused women confront dangerous situations, especially those involving abusers.

"If jurors harbored any doubt that Lopez had a well-grounded fear that [her boyfriend] would harm her and her family if she failed to purchase a gun for him, this testimony may have helped them understand why she 'accurately perceive[d] the seriousness of the situation before another person who had not been repeatedly abused might recognize the danger,'" Bybee wrote. United States v. Lopez, 2019 DJDAR 237 (9th Cir. Jan. 10, 2019).

Other federal appeals courts have decided the issue differently.

In 1994, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said expert testimony on the syndrome was inappropriate for the duress defense because the court viewed the testimony as being too subjective and related to specific individuals.

The district judge who presided over Lopez's case repeatedly denied her requests to present the testimony after federal prosecutors said such information would be irrelevant under the duress defense's objective standard.

But Bybee did not find the 5th Circuit's authority persuasive.

Instead, he turned to a 2016 case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to buttress his own conclusions Thursday.

The 9th Circuit judge noted, in a named citation, an opinion authored by recently confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"Most courts that have considered th[is] question -- especially in recent years -- have recognized that expert testimony on battered woman syndrome can be relevant to prove duress," Kavanaugh wrote.

Bybee, joined by visiting U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman from the District of Columbia bench, said the exclusion of battered woman syndrome testimony was a legal error constituting an abuse of discretion on the part of the trial judge.

That decision drew a dissent from 9th Circuit Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson, who said she supported the use of expert testimony on the syndrome in appropriate cases but could not agree that its exclusion was an abuse of discretion.