Woman who killed spouse spared jail

Anna Dokleski, who killed her abusive husband, was sentenced to community service.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The Haifa District Court on Monday sentenced Anna Dokleski to community service, two years after she was convicted of killing her husband. The court acquitted Dokleski of manslaughter due to the fact that she was a victim of severe domestic abuse at the hands of her husband. In May 2006, an argument broke out between the couple in their Hadera home. The husband cursed at Dokleski and struck her. In an instinctive reaction, she flung a vase at her husband's head, and he died as a result. "It is said that exceptional circumstances can cause even a devoted and faithful woman to act negligently," wrote Judge Ilan Shiff in the court's decision. "The difficulty in choosing a suitable punishment for someone who was convicted 'only' of negligent manslaughter is that the accused was not acting the way a normal person would act," added Shiff. After the decision was announced, Dokleski told reporters, "I'm sorry that it ended this way, no one deserved to die. I will carry out the community service to the best of my ability and repay my debt to society." The woman and her husband Boris were married for 34 years and during their marriage she endured heavy, continued abuse, both physical and mental, at the hands of her husband. When her husband got sick and became disabled, Dokleski took care of him devotedly despite the humiliation she had endured.