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Civil Rights and Discrimination
American University Washington College of Law
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Multicultural Feminism: Assessing Systemic Fault In A Provocative Context, Camille Nelson
Multicultural Feminism: Assessing Systemic Fault In A Provocative Context, Camille Nelson
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INTRODUCTION Strictly speaking, the cultural defense is really no defense at all. Instead, it is the moniker attached by defense attorneys to their advocacy which seeks to personalize the accused in one of two ways: First by injecting a reasonable doubt into the mens rea intent requirement - this would result in acquittal, or second, by contextualizing an affirmative defense, like provocation, by the provision of cultural information about the accused - this would result in mitigated sentencing. Central to defense attorneys' uses of the cultural defense is the criminal defendant's perceived "foreignness." This much has been recognized by scholars …