Battered Husband Defense in Wife Beheading Case - Updated

(Buffalo, New York) Television executive and accused wife-murderer Muzzammil S. "Mo" Hassan, 45, fired his first lawyer and retained another, Frank Bogulski, who immediately claimed the battered spouse defense.

"The spouse was the dominant figure in this relationship," Bogulski told a reporter afterward. "He was the victim. She was verbally abusive. She had humiliated him."

The allegations prompted an immediate rebuke from the prosecution.

"He chopped her head off," District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said of Hassan. "He chopped her head off. That's all I have to say about Mr. Hassan's apparent defense that he was a battered spouse." [...]

Bogulski said he has already begun interviewing psychiatric experts as part of his strategy for using some form of a psychiatric defense. He stressed he also will use a justification defense based on the claim that Hassan was "a battered" spouse verbally abused and humiliated often by his wife.

Hassan is still in jail awaiting trial.

Interestingly, since Hassan claims abuse and humiliation leading to the beheading one week after his wife filed for divorce, it seems more like an honor killing as opposed to a battered spouse situation. I suspect a jury won't buy the battered husband defense.

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NY Muslim TV Boss Beheads Wife
[Previous 2/14/09 post]
(Buffalo, New York) The founder of an Islamic television network, programmed to portray Muslims more positively, beheaded his wife this week.

Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan, 44, surrendered to police and admitted to murdering his wife, Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. She had been brutally beheaded.

Reportedly, Aasiya Hassan had filed for divorce and the couple had a history of incidents of physical abuse.

Muzzammil Hassan came to Orchard Park Police Headquarters at 6:20 p. m. Thursday and said that his wife was dead, Chief Andrew Benz said Friday.

Hassan told police that his wife was at the television station, where officers went and found her body.

Also involved in the investigation are personnel from the Sheriff’s Office, state police, Hamburg police, the District Attorney’s Office and the county’s Central Police Services Laboratory.

Parents of Muzzammil Hassan were thought to be en route to the area from Texas. Parents of Aasiya Hassan were said to be coming from Pakistan, and the mother of the older Hassan children was said to be coming from Pennsylvania.

Muzzammil Hassan was arraigned yesterday on a charge of second-degree murder. He was booked into custody. It's not clear if a bail amount will be set.

Although some financial difficulties have been reported, Hassan's television network, Bridges TV, continues to broadcast programming to counter violent perceptions of Muslims. Kind of ironic, eh?