In 1977, Joyce Hawthorne killed her abusive husband who had molested at least one of her children. She was convicted of murder. She appealed based on the court's exclusion of expert testimony regarding Battered Women's Syndrome.

In 1982, the Flordia Court of Appeals ruled in her favor and sent the case back to the trial court.

Was this the first time that the exclusion of testimony regarding battered women's syndrome was successfully challenged in court? If not, what was the first case?