Why Simpson May Use a Battered-Husband Defense

When O.J. Simpson said he felt like a battered husband, most of us laughed.

Granted that his former wife, the late Nicole Brown Simpson, worked out and was, according to her friends, in terrific shape. Still, obviously, she was no match for the USC and Buffalo Bills great running back.

But as damaging as were Wednesday’s accusations of wife-beating against Simpson, the notion of a battered-husband defense perhaps isn’t so far-fetched in a case so rich with complex emotions--feelings about a fallen hero, of love and rage in a marriage.

A murder trial last year in Van Nuys illustrates the unpredictability of the domestic violence issue, the subject of hearings that began before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito Wednesday.

After Moosa Hanoukai admitted he beat his wife to death with a wrench in 1993, he was charged with first-degree murder. But the jury accepted his attorney’s argument that Hanoukai was a victim of the “battered-husband syndrome.�

As a result, Hanoukai was found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter, and he may be out of prison after serving just four years.

While the facts of the Hanoukai killing are much different than in the Simpson case, they have something in common. They both revolve around the complicated nature of the relationship between men and women.

The interest in these issues was heightened by Wednesday’s release of the prosecution’s detailed allegations of a history of physical and verbal violence inflicted by Simpson on his wife.

Interesting, maybe, but not simple. The Hanoukai case shows that there’s no telling how a judge and jury will react to the facts of domestic violence.

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It seemed simple when Hanoukai surrendered to police and said he had beaten his wife, Manijeh, to death with a wrench in their Woodland Hills home. But his lawyer, James E. Blatt of Encino, used the couple’s history of conflict as a defense.

The couple had emigrated from Iran eight years before. Manijeh, 45, learned English quickly and was successful in business. But Blatt said the new language was too much for the 55-year-old Moosa, as were American business practices. Soon Moosa, who had been master of the house in their traditional Persian-Jewish home, was forced to sleep on the floor, working in his wife’s store for $1.75 every other day and not permitted to buy clothing and cigarettes. At night, he cleaned the house and cooked. Hanoukai, supported by witnesses, testified to this in court.

Hanoukai said that on a night when both the Jewish sabbath and the Persian New Year were celebrated, she cursed him and their daughter. She told him she wished he and their daughter were dead.

Hanoukai and witnesses testified that the wife often insulted him, and he took it. But on this night, he picked up a wrench and beat his wife to death. Attorney Blatt said Hanoukai struck her so hard and often that all the blood drained from her body.

Afterward, Hanoukai cleaned up the blood, put a dress on his wife, placed the body--wrapped in blankets and a plastic garbage bag--in the garage and went to Las Vegas. He returned and surrendered to police.

An interesting aspect of this case was a lack of physical abuse by Hanoukai’s wife. “We argued that it doesn’t matter that she didn’t hurt him,� Blatt said. “When you take away esteem, feelings of self-worth, that is a very significant injury. It was not only a battered husband’s syndrome, but we compared it to the destruction of a person’s self-esteem.�

Why didn’t Hanoukai leave? “A divorce would disgrace his name,� Blatt said, and would hurt his daughter’s chances of getting married. “We brought in cultural experts from Iran who explained the Persian culture. We explained why he couldn’t leave.�

The judge dismissed the first-degree murder charges against Hanoukai. And the jury, rejecting a chance to convict him of second-degree murder, chose manslaughter, which carries a lighter prison sentence.

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As I said, this isn’t really like the Simpson story, but when I asked Blatt about it, he said there were a couple of important similarities. “I got the feeling that when O.J. said he was a battered husband, he was talking more about psychological abuse rather than physical abuse,� Blatt said.

And, you never know how these allegations of domestic violence strike judges and juries.

Domestic violence grows out of basic human emotions and intimate relationships familiar to everybody. Most people have felt alternate surges of love, anger, even hate. “This is something we all understand,� said Blatt. “We all understand the volatility of love.�

That is why the impact of the domestic violence issue in the O.J. Simpson case is hard to predict.