Other Creative Responses
Objectivity by Mitchell Travis
We do not believe objectively in the necessity needed to live.
But we do believe objectively in the provocation needed to kill.
A Man’s World by Melissa McNeill
A man’s world they say,
How right they are.
In his eyes I betrayed him,
Then he took it too far.
The betrayal I feel,
So deep in my soul,
Is by the men in power,
So privileged, even more than they know.
My life has been taken,
Leaving children with no mother.
The true crime I say,
Is that women will continue to suffer.
He argued Provocation,
Implying I drove him to kill,
When the truth is,
The act he committed was pure evil.
A jealous rage he claims,
One that could not be stopped.
If only they had listened to me,
When I told them I was being stalked.
Change is needed now,
Sooner rather than later.
We need more women in power,
So that men are not our dictators.
Comments from Author:
This poem was inspired by the case of Drury v HM Advocate in which a male defendant plead the defence of ‘provocation’ against the killing of his ex-partner Marilyn McKenna. The poem is written from the perspective of McKenna.
Stuart Drury arrived at the victim’s address to find his ex-partner with a new lover. In a jealous rage, he picked up a hammer and violently killed her. However, he plead provocation in order to reduce his crime of murder to culpable homicide. Although his intention did not succeed, the courts still allowed this defence to be considered, partly due to the work of institutional writers such as Hume. Years later, the Scottish Feminist Judgements took a greater look at the case and noticed details were missing from reports. Mainly, it was never mentioned in court his prior history of stalking. The Scottish Feminist podcast is an interesting summary of the case and makes it clear a change in needed in the law, requiring more women to be in legislating positions.