ShriEEEkkk!!!! Woman pleads guilty to shooting husband - no jail sentence.

Amber Cummings was not given an absolute discharge. Or handed a nine-month conditional sentence with no jail time after pleading guilty to sexual assault. But then, her crime was different.

On the morning of Dec. 9, 2008, she took a Colt .45-caliber revolver, walked into her husband's bedroom and fired two bullets into his head while he slept, then fled with her daughter to a neighbor's home and called police.

The facts presented at trial before Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm were not disputed. Cummings pleaded not guilty and her defense lawyer Eric Morse argued for her acquittal.

Last week, Morse and prosecutors came to a plea agreement, calling for a sentence of up to eight years with Cummings to serve no more than a year in jail, followed by six years of probation. In his sentencing memo to Hjelm, Morse recommended that Amber Cummings serve no jail time.

Assistant Attorney General Leane Zania recommended that Cummings spend a year behind bars. Although Cummings was clearly abused by her husband, a message must be sent that "this kind of 'self-help' is severely anti-social behavior and that it will be punished accordingly," Zania wrote.

Amber Cummings didn't address the court, but three mental health experts who evaluated her urged Hjelm not to send her to jail.

In handing down the sentence, Hjelm said he looked at the case in its entirety and the reasons behind the shooting — not just the few seconds of the shooting itself.

From here, and more about the case here.

As you can well imagine, there are a number of rightwing gynophobes who are enraged at this outcome. They may launch a collective legal appeal to overturn the decision, if the rantings of someone like this guy are indicative of the fury, the fear and the loathing.

Judge Hjelm established the legal precedent that any woman based on her own internal and unverifiable thoughts and feelings has the right to murder any man and suffer no legal consequences. In short, women and women alone have the right to be judge, jury, and executioner.

[...] What is most critically at issue, however, is whether justice for the crime of murder is to be determined by feminist jurisprudence (the Battered-Woman Defense) or by behavior. In this case the behavior was a woman firing two bullets into the head of a sleeping man. To fully understand the double standards inherent in feminist jurisprudence one simply has to reverse the genders. Would any judge ruling in a case where a man fired two bullets into the head of a sleeping woman free the man with no criminal penalties?

I don't know if Judge Hjelm is married but if he is and were his wife to fire two bullets into his head while he slept, it would be ironic justice for his wife to be freed by the subsequent Judge on her case on the basis of her husband's own ruling.

More importantly, this case establishes a precedent that all men and all women who love men and want a man in their lives should oppose and seek to overturn. Were the core principle established by Judge Hjelm to be retained, we would be a society living under the rule of gender rather than a society living under the rule of law.

According to "Docter" Finley, Hjelm's judgement sends a message to all the wimminz that Husband Hunting season is now open and not in that funny Sadie Hawkins way either.

Blob Blogging "I don my flamesuit" Wingnut cruises for persecution. As would be expected, SHE conflates the Cummings acquittal, abortion, euthanasia, pedophilia and presumably, the murderous dictatorships of Pol Pot, Ceauşescu and Mugambe in one bitter, muddled screed.

Woman Kills Violent Nazi-Loving Pedophile Husband..and Walks

Can you think of a worse person to have to defend in a right to life case?

It would be helpful to know which person SHE refers to - the accused - or the deceased?

When you believe in the right to life, you have to defend the lives of ALL. Fetuses, severely disabled individuals, "vegetables", abortionists, serial rapists, murderous dictators, and yes...Nazi-loving wife-beating pedophiles. The pro-lifer is often on the side of the despised and unrespected. That's what makes our jobs so hard. But people will want to kill those who are unpopular. But the right to life is an important concept. We've made it so abstract to the point of meaningless. Hey-- it was okay to shoot that Nazi-loving pedophile, he had it coming! The problem is that it opens up a can worms. What other despised individuals will be allowed to be killed?I'm saying there shouldn't be ANY leniency in this case-- clearly the woman was working from desperation. But no jail time? What message does that send to the world? If the victim is morally repugnant enough, you can kill him with impunity.

The defendant was charged with a crime. There was a trial. Facts and evidence were presented by the prosecution and the defense attorneys. The judge accepted the argument of self-defense - the core of the Battered Wife Syndrome - and ruled.

Amber Cummings defended her life and her daughter's life. She pleaded guilty. The judge determined a sentence appropriate to the circumstances.

The person greeting Amber Cummings with a big hug as she leaves the courtroom is Rev. Ken Parker of the First Baptist Church, the pastor of the church she attends. No wonder Blob Blogging Wingnut is shrieeeking.