The Telephone Cord

The Defendant married his wife in May 1974. Three days after the wedding, his wife returned alone to Israel, where she began a relationship with another man. When she returned to Los Angeles on July 13, she told the Defendant she loved another man, that he was coming to America to take her back, and that she wanted a divorce. Over the next thirteen days, his wife alternated between sexual taunting and declarations of love, repeatedly describing her relationship with another man. During one confrontation, the Defendant choked his wife until she lost consciousness; she was treated at a hospital. A prominent psychiatrist later testified that his wife suffered suicidal impulses and was provoking the Defendant into killing her. On July 26, 1974, while his wife screamed at the Defendant, he strangled her with a telephone cord. He confessed to a friend.