what you think is love is truly not

what makes a person physically abuse someone they say the love so much?  to put your hands on that person and make them hurt.  bleed.  die....

as i sat and watched one of my co-worker's defend a second degree murder case for the past couple of days, i asked myself these questions.  the defendant was charged with shooting his wife nine times as she sat at a bar around 4:30 in the morning, unwinding with her co-workers after her shift as a cocktail waitress at a local hotel. after he shot her, he turned and shot her young co-worker once in the stomach and then left the bar.

the couple had a history of domestic abuse.  just about a week before her death, the wife had been at that same bar doing the same thing she was the night of her death and her husband had shown up and dragged her out of the bar by her hair.  he'd been arrested and a stay away order had been issued by a local judge.  she and their two kids had left him and were staying with friends.  

my co-worker argued manslaughter: an act that would otherwise be a homicide however the accused is acting under such a heat of blood caused by an act of provocation that a reasonable person under similar circumstances may have acted the same. coming home to find your husband in bed with another woman is the classic manslaughter trope. 

during his videotaped statement with the police, the defendant cried and confessed, blaming the shooting on an uncontrollable fit of rage spurred on by his thought that his wife was cheating on him with another man.  he repeatedly talked about how he loved her, how she was his, and how he couldn't stand to be away from her for one second.

though i hate to admit it, the prosecutor in this case really nailed it during her final arguments to the jury.  the love that the defendant professed for his wife was not that at all.  it was control. he wanted to know where she was and who she was with at all times for control. he hurt her to control her. he killed her to control her. he is now trying to control the jury by getting you to feel sorry for him and vote for manslaughter.  the prosecutor struck such a nerve with her arguments that at one point the defendant got up from the table and proceeded to walk out of the courtroom.  that never happens.  ever.  deputies rushed him.  the proceedings were put on hold.  and he never returned back into the courtroom during the rest of the state's closing arguments.

the jury ultimately found the defendant guilty as charged.  the defense attorney in me was sad for my colleague's loss.  but the black woman that i am always wants justice.  like eve.