![]() With these strategies, the defense manipulated many common views of abuse dynamics and myths about domestic violence. They included attempting to show that the relationships was fine enhancing the character of the defendant challenging prosecution evidence as faulty, misleading or inconclusive and attacking the victim's character. The defense used a variety of strategies to pursue these themes. Defense attorneys generally focused on one of four themes, although there was overlap in some cases: self-defense or provocation, showing that the offense warranted a lesser charge, diminished responsibility, and attempting to raise reasonable doubt that the defendant even committed the crime. Most prosecutors sought to present some form of corroboration of the victim's account. ![]() In proving the elements of the crime, prosecutors generally attempted to "tell the story" of the violence, sometimes by including a history of abuse in the relationship and other times focusing only on the violent offense charged. Three prosecution themes were present in every case: proof that the charged crime had occurred, proof that the defendant was responsible for this crime, and proof of the credibility of the state's evidence of the defendant's guilt. Trial transcripts were scanned into computer files, edited, and analyzed by using the HyperResearch qualitative text analysis program. In addition to identifying general prosecution and defense strategies, the study also examined the extent to which prosecutors were able to present evidence of the context of the abusive relationship and history of prior violent acts in helping the fact-finders understand the current charge.
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