Innovative defense
Encyclopedia
Innovative defenses are relatively new and untried defense
s for having committed a criminal act. Being innovative, there is little or no precedent
bearing upon them.
Such defenses include:
Parodies of innovative defenses are sometimes seen in entertainment, for example the Chewbacca Defense
.
Defense (legal)
In civil proceedings and criminal prosecutions under the common law, a defendant may raise a defense in an attempt to avoid criminal or civil liability...
s for having committed a criminal act. Being innovative, there is little or no precedent
Precedent
In common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a legal case that a court or other judicial body may apply when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts...
bearing upon them.
Such defenses include:
- the abuse defenseAbuse defenseThe abuse defense is a criminal law defense in which the defendant argues that a prior history of abuse justifies violent retaliation. While the term most often refers to instances of child abuse or sexual assault, it also refers more generally to any attempt by the defense to use a syndrome or...
- Battered woman defenceBattered woman defenceThe battered woman defense is a defense used in court that the person accused of an assault / murder was suffering from battered person syndrome at the material time. Because the defense is most commonly used by women, it is usually characterised in court as battered woman syndrome or battered wife...
- Battered woman defence
- premenstrual stress syndrome
- the biological defenseBiological defenseIn biology,*often biological defense mechanism, a form of adaptation that promotes the survivability of an organism by protecting it from its natural enemies. Also see chemical defense.In law,...
(the "Twinkie DefenseTwinkie defense"Twinkie defense" is a derisive label for an improbable legal defense. It is not a recognized legal defense in jurisprudence, but a catchall term coined by reporters during their coverage of the trial of defendant Dan White for the murders of San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor...
") - "Black rage"
- urban survival syndromeUrban survival syndromeThe urban survival syndrome in United States jurisprudence, can be used either as a defense of justification or of excuse. The first case using the defense of "urban survival syndrome" is the 1994 Fort Worth, Texas murder trial of Daimion Osby....
.
Parodies of innovative defenses are sometimes seen in entertainment, for example the Chewbacca Defense
Chewbacca defense
The Chewbacca defense is a legal strategy used in episode 27 of South Park, "Chef Aid", which premiered on October 7, 1998, as the fourteenth episode of the second season. The aim of the argument is deliberately to confuse the jury by making use of the fallacy known as ignoratio elenchi, or a red...
.