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38 Howard L.J. 297 (1994-1995)
Battered Woman Syndrome: Selling the Shadow to Support the Substance

handle is hein.journals/howlj38 and id is 305 raw text is: Battered Woman Syndrome: Selling the Shadow to Support the Substance* SHELBY A.D. MOORE** INTRODUCTION According to Thelma Jean Banks's testimony, on the day of the murder of her live-in partner James McDonald (nicknamed Brother), Jean and Brother, both alcoholics, spent the day drinking and argu- ing.1 During an argument, Brother struck Jean, pushed her to the * Sojourner Truth, though denied her status as mother and woman, refused to relinquish her dignity to accept the label of victim. And although a slave, she exhibited strength and power, commanding respect when speaking out against slavery and in favor of women's rights. As evidence of her strength and self-determination, Truth sold copies of her portrait to support herself and her work. Under her photograph she printed, I sell the shadow to support the substance. By this statement she meant she sold her photograph, her shadow, to support herself and her work, her substance. As applied in this article, selling the shadow to support the substance means that, like Sojourner Truth, women, particularly African American women, must be willing to sell or relinquish the superficial gains made through use of syndrome testimony, which is, at most, merely the shadow of equality because of its theme of victimization. Instead, women must support the fight for equal treatment of women in the criminal justice system through equal application of the law so that when women assert that they have killed their partners in self- defense while suffering abuse at the hands of their spouse, they can be heard and believed. This is the substance of equality. See JACOUELINE BERNARD, JOURNEY TOWARD FREEDOM: THE STORY OF SOJOURNER TRUTH 150 (1967); VICTORIA ORTIZ, SOJOURNER TRUTH: A SELF-MADE WOMAN 96 (1976). ** Associate Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law, LL.M. 1992, Harvard Law School; J.D. 1984, University of Baltimore; B.A. 1981, Towson State University. Assistant Pros- ecutor, Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, Aug. 1986 - Aug. 1991. I thank Harvard Law Professors James Vorenberg and Charles Ogletree for their encour- agement in my efforts to write this article. I also thank Derrick Bell not only for his support of my writing, but also for his support of me as a new law professor. I am grateful for the guidance of Elizabeth Schneider as I developed the idea for this Article in early 1992 and her subsequent critical reading and suggestions in 1993. I am especially thankful to the faculty members at South Texas College of Law for their words of encouragement when it appeared I had grown weary in my effort. Particularly, I thank Professors Helen Jenkins, Bruce Burton, Susan Crump, Teresa Collett, Kimberly Cauthorn, Sandra DeGraw, and Ann Puckett for their suggestions and support. Finally, I thank student assistants Ursula Hall, Sharon Cammack, and William May- nard who worked tirelessly in this effort. I especially thank Ursula Hall, who engaged me in dialogue on intellectually difficult issues, the result of which assisted me in reworking the article. 1. Banks v. State, 608 A.2d 1249, 1252 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1992). Brother and Jean began drinking before 7:00 A.M. on the morning before the murder. They had also been drinking the 1995 Vol. 38 No. 2

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