Supreme Court to Declare Open Season on Battered Women

It is reported in the Los Angeles Times that the Supreme Court of the US is getting ready to hand down decisions in two cases that, if the decision goes as it may, will place battered women squarely under the thumbs of their batterers.

Under the guise of confronting the accuser, the Court may end the practice of using 911 taped recordings or live mic recordings as an alternate source of information if the victim later refuses to testify or is run out of the territory.

Yes, yes, I know, this is supposed to be an aviation blog. But this is big.

When I prosecuted domestic violence crimes, it was the practice of the local cops to take the squad car with the video equipment to a reported domestic. When they arrived they'd leave the video equipment running and they would thus have a live mic when they interviewed the parties. As usually happened, the victims would refuse to testify, but there, it did not matter because we had excited utterances which are a well recognized exception to the rule against hearsay.

What the Court seems to be getting ready to say is "If you beat her, you better intimidate her as well and make sure she doesn't show up-then you'll be home free."