Article content In Naslund’s acknowledged circumstances of having killed in response to repeated and severe violence against her, why did the Crown decide that its original charge of first degree murder was a proper exercise of its prosecutorial discretion? Was this an example of over-charging for coercive leverage? One of the significant findings of the Self-Defence Review, completed by Lynn Ratushny in 1997, was that the crushing weight of murder charges frequently deter battered women from persevering to trial and airing their legitimate self-defence claims. She therefore recommended that prosecutors charge manslaughter, not murder, when they are willing to accept a manslaughter plea.