Wife stabbed her husband repeatedly by domestic violence as a protector and severely injured. Court: it is a legitimate defense, not guilty
Qiu Momei stabbed her husband and injured her second grade seriously.
At the time of the incident, Qiu Moumei and her son encountered domestic violence. In order to prevent her son's operation ear from being damaged for less than one month after the operation, Qiu Moumei took the fruit knife on the bedside and stabbed Zhang's back three times, causing her two serious injuries. level.
After the incident, Qiu Moumei divorced her husband and gave up all her property rights as compensation to Zhang, in exchange for a letter of understanding from Zhang, in order to obtain the court’s decision to exempt criminal punishment.
On June 24, 2020, the People's Court of Xinzhou District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, after a trial, held that this was a legitimate defense and Qiu Momei was not guilty.
After being insulted and beaten by her husband, she stabbed three times to protect her son
Qiu Momei and Zhang have been married for 10 years, and they gave birth to a son in 2010. The son had a congenital ear deformity in the right ear with hearing impairment. He had undergone surgery three times in the hospital and he took autologous costal cartilage to reconstruct the right auricle. In addition to her son's congenital illness, Qiu Moumei and her husband have a bad relationship. The two often quarreled due to family affairs.
A neighbor testified that the quarrel between Qiu Moumei and her husband even disturbed the normal rest of the neighbors nearby. "Everyone knows that they have a bad relationship. Qiu Moumei once said that she wanted to divorce, but because the child was very pitiful, she endured it. 'S child has a physical defect and needs a large amount of money for surgery. This woman is very kind and pitiful. No one is often short of money for living expenses, and often goes out to find work to subsidize the family."
The neighbor said that once Zhang took a cup and smashed Qiu's foot. Qiu's foot still has scars and has not recovered. It looks like it was sunken by a heavy object.
Qiu Moumei recalled that Zhang usually hit her with fists. When she was more than 8 months pregnant, Zhang hit her left foot with a glass cup, and the scar was still there for ten years. When the child was more than two months old, Zhang pressed her on the bed and beat her with a fist. She once knelt and begged him not to live with him anymore. When the child was one year old, she was beaten by Zhang with no strength to fight back. At that time, to protect herself, she bit Zhang's right hand. He pulled her mouth forcefully, causing her teeth to become loose. Nine years later, the teeth were still With sequelae, it will hurt in winter.
"In recent years I have learned to be smart. As long as I see Zhang being emotional, pointing at me, and his mouth is frothy, I know that he is going to do something to me, and I will run away and hide for two or three. When I was young, he would still scold me when I got home, but I didn't dare to respond." Qiu Moumei said.
The tension between the husband and wife lasted until the evening of July 2, 2019. At that time, the two had been separated for several months.
The court found that that night, the two had repeatedly disputed over divorce issues and agreed to go through the divorce procedures the next day. At around 1 am on July 3, Zhang came to the community where Qiu and his son lived, and tried to enter the room by calling, knocking on the door, and smashing the windows with small stones. Qiu did not open the door and respond. After Qiu Moumei called the police, the policeman was still unable to find the location of the incident, so he called Zhang to persuade and warn. Qiu Moumei called Zhang's mother for help again, but after no results, she took out a single-edged fruit knife from the kitchen and hid it in her hand and opened the door. After Zhang entered the house, he insulted and beat Qiu Momei, forced Qiu Momei into the bedroom and slapped her on the face.
After being beaten, Qiu Moumei did not immediately resist with a knife and hid the fruit knife by the bed. Seeing that his mother was beaten, the son hit Zhang on the back with a toy golden hoop. Zhang immediately pressed his son on the bed with one hand, knelt down his legs with his legs, and hit his son’s buttocks with his right hand. In order to prevent her son's operating ears from being damaged, Qiu Moumei stopped her with bare hands. After stopping the fruitlessness, he picked up the fruit knife on the bedside and stabbed Zhang's back three times, two of which pierced his chest.
Divorce, give up all property, get a letter of understanding
After Zhang was injured, Qiu Momei immediately took Zhang to the Yangluo District of the Third People's Hospital of Hubei Province for treatment. Zhang was discharged after 12 days of hospitalization.
According to forensic medical identification, Zhang’s main injuries were chest wall penetrating wounds, double lung lacerations, bilateral pleural effusion, left pleural gas accumulation, left back chest wall gas accumulation, and right thoracic gas accumulation, and his lung rupture was operated The treated injury is rated as serious injury grade two; the injury of pneumothorax and chest wall penetrating wound is graded as minor injury grade two; the comprehensive evaluation of the degree of injury is severe injury grade two.
On August 21, 2019, Qiu Moumei was released on bail pending trial. On August 27, Qiu Momei and Zhang went through the divorce procedures. Qiu Mou waived all of her property rights as compensation to Zhang, and Zhang issued a letter of understanding requesting that Qiu Moumei be exempted from criminal punishment. On November 11, 2019, the People's Procuratorate of Xinzhou District, Wuhan City accused Qiu Moumei of intentional injury and filed a public prosecution to the court. The prosecution believes that Qiu's legitimate defense has clearly exceeded the necessary limit, causing serious harm and should be investigated for criminal responsibility. It is recommended that Qiu's imprisonment be sentenced to two years and suspended for three years.
In the court, Qiu Moumei pleaded guilty voluntarily, and at the same time pleaded that she stabbed Zhang with a knife in order to prevent the child from being harmed, requesting exemption from criminal punishment.
"I work odd jobs around and suffer from multi-nodular thyroid nodules. I need an operation cost of 40,000 yuan. I can't afford it. I have been dragging it. Now I have divorced with Zhang, and I have given up all the property. The child will be raised by him." In court, Qiu Moumei said: “Since I stabbed Zhang, we have not contacted and met very much. I believe the law will give me a fair result.”
The prosecution accused of intentional injury, the court found not guilty
The Xinzhou District People’s Court found that legitimate defense is a right granted to citizens by law. Article 19 of the "Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice on Handling Domestic Violence Cases According to Law" stipulates that To protect the personal rights of oneself or others from unlawful infringements, and to stop the ongoing domestic violence, as long as they meet the requirements of the criminal law, they should be recognized as legitimate defense and not liable for criminal responsibility.
In this case, Qiu Moumei was harassed by her husband Zhang during the separation period due to a marriage dispute until the early hours of the morning, when she and her son were beaten by Zhang. In order to prevent her son’s rebuilding auricle from being damaged in less than one month after the operation, Qiu Moumei used a single-edged fruit knife to stabbing her back with three knives while she was unable to stop Zhang with her bare hands. It was consistent with the cause, time, and subjectivity of legitimate defense. Both the prosecution and the defense have no objection to the conditions such as, object, etc.
The focus of the dispute in this case is whether Qiu Moumei's legitimate defensive behavior has obviously exceeded the necessary limit and caused significant damage.
In this regard, the court comprehensively judged that: to determine whether the defensive behavior "obviously exceeds the necessary limit", the standard should be sufficient to stop and protect the defender from illegal infringement of domestic violence, according to the defender's environment and the degree of danger faced by the defender. , The measures taken to stop the violence, the severity of the domestic violence being committed by the perpetrator, the degree of major damage caused to the perpetrator, and the history of previous domestic violence.
First of all, before the incident, Qiu Moumei was repeatedly entangled by Zhang due to marital conflicts, and continued to be harassed by him until the early hours of the morning. After calling the police for help, the policeman failed to arrive at the scene to deal with. After the police called Zhang and Qiu to ask Zhang's mother for help, they had no choice but to open the door to face the angry Zhang. Because Qiu Momei and her son were beaten and scolded by the grumpy Zhang, Qiu Moumei tried to defend herself under the circumstances of exhausting help, isolation, psychological fear, and disparity in power. Precautions and preparation of tools are justified and reasonable.
Secondly, after Qiu Moumei was insulted and beaten by Zhang, although she had a knife in her hand, she did not immediately resist with the knife. She took advantage of the trend and hid the knife by the bed, reflecting that Qiu Moumei still maintained a certain degree at this time Forbearance and restraint. When Zhang pressed his son on the bed and beat him, although he only hit his son’s buttocks, an angry adult suppressed and injured a 9-year-old child violently. He injured his son’s cartilage ribs and reconstructed the auricle. The obvious danger of severe damage. Considering her son’s congenital malformation of the right ear, having taken the rib cartilage from the body to reconstruct the auricle, and being discharged from the hospital less than one month after the third operation, Qiu Moumei was worried that her son’s surgical ear would be damaged. After stopping with bare hands, she was in a hurry. The act of stabbing Zhang with a knife to prevent him from harming his son and avoiding serious damage should be evaluated as legitimate defense.
The court held that to judge whether Qiu Moumei’s defensive behavior clearly exceeds the necessary limit, it is necessary to fully understand a mother’s urgency to protect her son from harm, and that Qiu Moumei’s normal stress response and anxiety should also be fully considered at the time. The special condition of the son's body. After Zhang was injured and stopped beating her son, Qiu Momei immediately stopped stabbing her son. At this time, she should not be too demanding from the standpoint of a calm bystander afterwards and demanding that the defender is “equal” and that the defender is isolated and helpless. Under high tension, react objectively, calmly, rationally and accurately, and implement behaviors that just stop illegal infringements. Nor should you fall into the "consequence theory" error, and make a post-judgment based on all objective facts ascertained. In particular, the defensive consequences of serious injury cannot be used to reverse the defensive behavior. The resulting consequences, the objective situation at the time and other factors are comprehensively judged, and appropriate considerations and determinations are made in favor of the defender.
To sum up, the court found that Qiu Moumei's legitimate defensive behavior did not exceed the necessary limit and was not criminally liable. On June 24, 2020, the People's Court of Xinzhou District, Wuhan City ruled that Qiu Moumei was not guilty.
Tan Jun, chief reporter of The Paper