In Brooklyn Supreme Court, a variation of battered wife's syndrome is being used to defend John Pickett against charges of second-degree murder. Pickett stabbed his jealous live-in boyfriend, John Stagno, to death in 1997 after Stagno threatened Pickett with a knife and a bottle when Pickett attempted to end the relationship. Pickett's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, cites a similar case in Florida in the early '90s involving two lesbians.

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