[UPDATE: Whoops, sorry, double post from a few weeks ago; I'd have just deleted this, but it already accumulated some comments, which I don't want to delete in turn.]
From Mercer v. Stewart, decided April 25 by Judge Matthew Leitman (E.D. Mich.):
In 2011, Petitioner Barbara Jean Mercer, who was then in the throes of a crippling addiction to crack cocaine, made two grave mistakes that sent her and those around her down a dangerous path. Her first mistake was stealing a small amount of crack from two violent drug dealers, Anthony Hannah and Shemel Thomas. Thomas quickly discovered the theft, and he then threatened to "shoot [Mercer's] shit up" and "hurt" her. Mercer was frightened by Thomas' threats. She told her live-in boyfriend, Richard Janish, about them, and he was "terrified."
Mercer then made her second mistake. She developed a risky plan with Janish to end the threats from Thomas and Hannah. In Mercer's words, she agreed with Janish that they would (1) "call [Hannah and Thomas] over [to Mercer's house]" with a promise of payment for the stolen crack and then, (2) when Hannah and Thomas arrived, Janish would "scare them a little bit" in an effort to persuade them to stay away from Mercer. This ill-conceived scheme ended with Thomas and Hannah shot to death at Mercer's house.
During the police investigation into the shootings, Janish and Mercer explained to investigators how their plan to scare off Thomas and Hannah went awry. Janish told officers that shortly after Thomas and Hannah arrived at Mercer's residence, he (Janish) had a confrontation with Hannah in front of the house and ended up having to shoot Hannah in an effort to defend himself. Janish and Mercer both told investigators that Janish then entered the house and found Thomas attempting to sexually assault Mercer. They explained that Janish shot Thomas in order to defend Mercer against the assault.
The local prosecuting attorney did not believe Mercer's and Janish's account of the killings. He concluded that Mercer and Janish had conspired to kill Hannah and Thomas long before they arrived at Mercer's house to collect the drug debt. The prosecutor charged Mercer and Janish with, among other crimes, one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and two counts of pre-meditated first-degree murder. At trial, the jury was also permitted to consider charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter because those offenses were lesser-included offenses of the first-degree murder charges.
During the trial, the parties primarily clashed over whether Mercer and Janish planned the killings and whether they were guilty of conspiracy and first-degree murder. Mercer and Janish prevailed in that battle. The jury acquitted them of the conspiracy and first-degree murder charges.
Mercer and Janish also had a complete defense to the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges with respect to Thomas' death, but the state trial court prevented the jury from considering that defense. Under Michigan law, neither Mercer nor Janish could have been convicted of any homicide offense with respect to the killing of Thomas if the jury found, as they both told police, that Janish killed Thomas to prevent him from raping Mercer (the "Defense of Mercer Defense").
