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99 Dick. L. Rev. 141 (1994-1995)
Cultural Conflicts in Court: Should the American Criminal Justice System Formally Recognize a Cultural Defense

handle is hein.journals/dlr99 and id is 151 raw text is: I COMMENTSI Cultural Conflicts in Court: Should the American Criminal Justice System Formally Recognize A Cultural Defense? I. Introduction The United States has always been considered a nation where immigrants are embraced wholeheartedly into the framework of the culture.' However, what happens when those immigrants follow the traditions, values, and norms of their own cultures to the extent that it conflicts with those of their adopted homeland?2 An inevitable legal clash of cultures arises through which innovative attorneys recently have been attempting to forge new paths in criminal defense using the defense of culture.3 Several cases illustrate the consequences of this cultural collision. For example, in 1985, a young Japanese woman, upon hearing of her husband's infidelity, carried her two young children into the sea. The children drowned, but the woman was saved and placed on trial for murder The woman claimed she had been practicing oyako-shinju,6 or parent-child suicide, a custom that is accepted and even honored in 1. John C. Lyman, Cultural Defense: Viable Doctrine or Wishful Thinking?, 9 CRIM. JUST. J. 87 (1986). 2. Id. at 87; see also Mark Thompson, The Cultural Defense, 14 STUDENT LAW. 25 (1985). 3. Spencer Sherman, Legal Clash of Cultures, NAT'L L.J., August 5, 1985, at 1. 4. People v. Kimura, No. A-091133 (Santa Monica Super. Ct. Nov. 21, 1985). See Michael Reese, A Tragedy in Santa Monica, NEWSWEEK, May 6, 1985, at 10. 5. Leslie Pound, Mother's Tragic Crime Exposes A Culture Gap, CHI. TRIB., June 10, 1985, at Cl. 6. Sherman, supra, note 3, at 1.

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