A Twist on the Abuse Excuse

It's become popular in recent years for the public and pundits alike to deride a defense attorney's use of an "abuse excuse" - i.e., he had a rotten childhood so, please, don't execute him. Hey, if that's all you've got to work with, you work with it. Now along comes a real stretch of the abuse excuse in Oregon. There a defense attorney, representing a man accused of killing a 2-year-old boy, is putting forward a slave trauma defense. Basically, because of the history of slavery in this country, African-Americans experience modern trauma that manifests itself, for some people, in outbursts of uncontrollable violence. No ruling from the trial judge as to whether to allow a jury to see this defense.