State v. Koss

We shall first address whether the trial court erred in refusing to admit evidence of the battered woman syndrome. The trial court excluded the testimony based on the earlier decision of this court in State v. Thomas (1981), *21566 Ohio St. 2d 518, 20 O.O. 3d 424, 423 N.E. 2d 137.

In Thomas, swpra, the defendant alleged that she killed her common-law husband in self-defense. The trial court did not allow the defendant to introduce expert testimony on the battered woman syndrome in support of her defense. This court held that expert testimony on the battered woman syndrome was “inadmissible in…