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Criminal Law Keyed to Ohlin
State v. White
Citation:
251 P.3d 820 (2011)Facts
Brenda and Jon White were married for eleven years. Jon was addicted to pornography, asked Brenda to engage in sexual threesomes with him, and was allegedly having an affair with another woman. This caused Ms. White to experience feelings of great anxiety, anger, and agitation. They got a divorce and Ms. White’s stress was increased as she struggled to support her two daughters.
As part of the divorce settlement, Ms. White was awarded the house. Because of her financial troubles, she attempted to refinance the home, but needed Jon’s signature to do so. On April 26, 2006, Ms. White went to Jon’s office to speak to him about it and the two got into an intense argument. Ms. White climbed into her vehicle, turned on music, and sang along with a song that said “I want to kill you; I want to blow you away.” She mimicked shooting Jon with her hands.
Later the same day, she returned to Jon’s office and observed him talking on a cell phone that he had previously denied owning. She testified that at this moment she felt overcome with anger, agitation, loss, grief, and disappointment. She claimed to have lost all self control as she drove her vehicle towards Jon, acerbating quickly. Jon was struck twice with her vehicle, but survived.
She was charged with attempted murder. She filed a pretrial motion asking the trial judge to instruct the jury on the extreme emotional distress defense. The trial judge denied the motion, and the court of appeals affirmed, holding that she failed to demonstrate a highly proactive and contemporaneous triggering event for an extreme emotional distress defense instruction.
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Topic Resources
Topic Outline
HomicideTopic Refresher Course
Introduction to Defenses and Self Defense