Having undergone years of alleged emotional and sexual abuse, 13-year-old Rachel Booth aimed a shotgun at her sleeping father's face and pulled the trigger.

The district attorney and Rachel's defense attorney agree that she should be tried in juvenile court, where the longest she could be held on a murder conviction is until her 21st birthday.

Her lawyer, Patrick Nightingale, said he expects to use Rachel's history of abuse as part of her argument for self-defense, following a precedent that has been set over the last three decades using what is known as battered woman syndrome.

Defined in 1977, battered woman syndrome is based on the premise that severe and habitual abuse can lead to a psychological state in which victims either cannot seek help or they commit a violent act of their own.

In a recent case in Tennessee, Mary Winkler, the wife of a preacher, claimed she had been both physically and emotionally abused for years. On March 22, 2006, she shot her husband to death as he lay in bed.

Though she was prosecuted for murder, a jury found her guilty on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

But the battered-woman defense is not always universally accepted by prosecutors, judges or jurors.

In a 1989 North Carolina case, the state Supreme Court ruled against Judy Laws Norman, who shot her sleeping husband to death. It found that even though he had beaten and abused Ms. Norman for decades -- and had forced her into prostitution -- at the time she pulled the trigger he was not "an imminent threat."

And sometimes, even in cases where the threat of harm was imminent, a defendant is not guaranteed success.

Mr. Nightingale has another case involving battered woman syndrome that he considers compelling, but the district attorney's office so far has not offered what he considers a good deal.

On Feb. 5, 2006, Monique Bailey, who was pregnant, and her live-in boyfriend, Mark Ralph Woods, went to a Super Bowl party to watch the Steelers play the Seattle Seahawks.

While at the party, Ms. Bailey said during a recent interview, she started to feel ill and wanted to leave.

Mr. Woods, however, was displeased. While walking back to their Beechview apartment with their 3-year-old son, Ms. Bailey told police, Mr. Woods hit her and knocked her to the ground. When she got up, she hit him in the face.

When they got back to the apartment, "Ralph told her that his face better not be messed up or 'we'll see,'" according to the police report.

He went into the bathroom to look at his face.

"When he came out, he started beating me up. Bang. Bang. Bang," she recounted.

He knocked her to the floor and began stomping on her. Ms. Bailey, now 26, kicked him off of her.

"I got up from the floor, went to the kitchen, pulled a drawer and got a knife," she said. "I just turned around to stop him."

The knife plunged into Mr. Woods' chest.

As soon as it happened, Ms. Bailey said she called police, and held a towel over his wound until help arrived. When officers got there, she admitted that she stabbed Mr. Woods.

To Mr. Nightingale, it sounds like a classic case of self-defense, exacerbated by her having been abused by Mr. Woods in the past, though she had never called police before.

Further, he said, Ms. Bailey, who has no criminal history, is learning-disabled.

What makes the case more bothersome, Mr. Nightingale continued, is that when he worked as an assistant district attorney, he had a similar case that ultimately resulted in an involuntary manslaughter conviction with a sentence of probation.

In that case, a woman shot her abusive husband -- a police officer who was returning home drunk -- with his service pistol, which she had hidden under her pillow.

But according to Mr. Nightingale, the best plea offer he's heard form Ms. Bailey is for voluntary manslaughter, which would carry a likely four-year prison term.

The DA's office cannot comment on a pending case. But First Assistant District Attorney Chris Connors did say that Ms. Bailey's case, which is scheduled for trial on Sept. 17, had not yet been reviewed.

"In cases like this, the district attorney himself makes the final decision," Mr. Connors said. "He takes the battered-woman defense very seriously, and all the facts and circumstances are considered very carefully to reach a fair and appropriate plea agreement."

Mr. Nightingale said prosecutors may believe Ms. Bailey could have gotten to the phone to call 911 instead of stabbing Mr. Woods.

But one expert said that's unlikely.

The prosecutor presumes that by making the 911 call, Ms. Bailey would have been out of harm's way, said Mary Ann Dutton, a psychiatry professor at Georgetown University Medical Center.

And that's not necessarily the case, she said.

Instead, before police could arrive, Mr. Woods might have become even more angry. Or if no arrest were made, Ms. Dutton asked, what would happen after the officers left?

"It boils down to: There's no protection here," she said.

For any self-defense claim to work, a defendant must show that she had a reasonable belief she was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm.

For women who have been repeatedly abused, that belief can be tainted by their history, said Lenore E. A. Walker, executive director of the Domestic Violence Institute.

"Battered woman syndrome helps jurors understand [that] in a woman's mind it's not just what's happening in the moment," Ms. Walker said. "It's the flood of memories from their past, too."

In Rachel Booth's case, Mr. Nightingale said, her abuse started at age 7 and continued until just a short time before the shooting.

After her arrest, Rachel was committed to Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Oakland. Doctors there are trying to develop a working diagnosis for her and determine whether she's in need of medication, he said.

"A single incident of violence or abuse can scar someone and cause post-traumatic-stress disorder in varying degrees," Mr. Nightingale said. "For someone who's endured physical abuse for years and years, and at such a vulnerable age, I can't imagine how they would learn to cope with that on a daily basis."

The term "battered woman syndrome" was coined by Ms. Walker, who now teaches at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.

By giving it a name, she was able to classify what had been happening to women and help both victims and researchers better understand it.

She first testified as an expert on the matter in the late 1970s. Since then, as it's grown as a defense in court, battered woman syndrome has become more widely accepted.

According to Sue Osthoff, director of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, there haven't been many major changes in the defense recently.

"It's less newsworthy now," she said, because experts recognize that "there is a valid science supporting it."

Still, she said, there continues to be "victim blaming," and people who believe the woman should have found a way out of the situation.

But in the Bailey case, Mr. Nightingale said, she was without any ability to leave Mr. Woods.

"The abuser did a very good job of isolating her from her friends and family," he said. "She was entirely dependent on him for self-esteem and self-worth."

That's often the case with an abusive spouse, Ms. Dutton said.

There are a number of reasons why victims of spousal abuse are unable to leave their partners, she said. They include logistical issues, such as not having the money or resources to be able to survive on their own.

But there are emotional reasons, too. Some women believe abuse is common, that every woman must endure it.

And still others continue to cling to hope, Ms. Dutton said, believing, "He'll change. He's sorry. It won't happen again. I can change him. It will get better."

Some experts in the field are moving away from the term "battered woman syndrome," arguing that it makes it sound as though the victim has a mental illness.

Instead, they prefer referring to it as post-traumatic-stress disorder. Either way, explaining self-defense in the context of a cycle of abuse can be effective in battling a criminal charge.

Often, Ms. Dutton said, it leads to a reduced charge or sentence, but not always an acquittal.

When going before a jury with such a defense, she said, women tend to be more receptive to the arguments than men.

To win such a case, though, it's essential to have an expert witness to testify about the effects of battering.

"Many of these women have been so psychologically traumatized that they don't have the ability to testify in a murder trial," she said.

Another thing that can be seen as a pitfall in arguing battered woman syndrome is if the woman, in the past, has fought back.

Ms. Dutton said that should not be an issue.

"The reality is, more battered women physically fight back than not," she said. "We now know there are a lot of victims who aren't just meek and mild, who respond in physical form."

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Correction/Clarification: (Published Aug. 14, 2007) The name of Allegheny County First Assistant District Attorney Christopher Connors was misspelled in this article as originally published Aug. 12, 2007 and in an Aug. 4, 2007 article.