Prof Tommy Curry Provides Expert Testimony for Murder Defence

Last month, Professor Tommy Curry (Personal Chair in Africana philosophy and Black male studies) spoke at the Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (DARDRs)/Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) and Criminal Justice Summit in London. He was there to talk about his experience, providing expert testimony for a murder trial in a New Orleans courtroom.

In October, Professor Curry provided testimony about Black male victims of intimate partner violence. In the case, State of Louisiana vs Kelvin Atkins, a Black man was accused of killing a woman with whom he was involved.

Mr. Atkins was found guilty of possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon, and obstruction of justice, but not murder. Thus, making this the first case in Louisiana that utilised a "battered man's" defence, creating a major intervention in domestic violence scholarship and jurisprudence.

It is a tremendous privilege to have my research on the victimization of Black males recognized by a criminal court and presented in front of a jury. For me, this recognition is profoundly meaningful because it affirms that the historical and contemporary evidence I have spent more than a decade documenting has real-world impact—impact capable of shaping how courts understand the vulnerability of Black men to intimate partner violence and intimate partner homicide.
Within the humanities especially, research into the victimization and vulnerability of Black men is often discouraged and even demonized.
Yet the evidence—from American ethnographic studies conducted between 1900 and the 1960s to the national survey data collected from 1975 to the present—tells a very different story. From 1975 to 1991 Black men were the majority of the victims of intimate partner homicide in the Black community. And, over the last two decades, Black men have reported equal or higher 12-month rates of victimization than their female counterparts.
For the judicial system to acknowledge this evidence is deeply significant.

In providing this testimony, he became the first ever black philosopher to have their testimony pass the Daubert Standard, the strict criteria US courts use to determine whether evidence presented is of a rigorous, peer-reviewed and verifiable quality.

The court reviewed several pieces of Prof Curry’s published research on intimate partner violence, including the systematic review "The Prevalence of Intimate Partner Victimization among Black Men in the United States" that he completed for his Master’s in Public Health here at the University of Edinburgh.

The Daubert Standard is designed for scientific and technical experts like forensic scientists, engineers, or statisticians, not for people working in conceptual domains like ethics or philosophy. Professor Curry is the first known philosopher to satisfy the strict demands of the Standard since 2005.

It is both humbling to know that my evidence and research are now part of case precedent in State v. Atkins. To my knowledge, State v. Atkins marks the first time in Louisiana case law that a Black man’s vulnerability to intimate partner violence—and his being threatened with death—was formally recognized as a justification for self-defense. That alone is significant.
Personally, it is gratifying to know that scholarship aimed at documenting the overlooked suffering of Black men now occupies a place within the legal record of a U.S. state. Professionally, it signals that interdisciplinary work—spanning Africana philosophy, Black male studies, public health, and criminology—can reshape how courts interpret evidence, intention, and vulnerability.
But this precedent also reflects the insight and courage of Ryan Thompson, whose legal strategy made space for the evidence to be heard. His defense not only changed the trajectory of one case; it established a pathway for future defendants whose victimization has long been ignored.
In many ways, Thompson’s commitment to grounding the defense in social scientific evidence made it possible for me to fulfil the role of expert witness as it should be fulfilled: by providing jurors with a factual, historically grounded understanding of intimate partner violence in the Black community.

Prof Curry intends to publish the research utilised during the trial, which shows the victimisation of Black men to intimate partner violence in his forthcoming book, tentatively entitled Myths Maketh Man.

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