Excerpt:
A mother accused of strangling her teenage daughter with a scarf was acting in selfdefence, her lawyer said Monday.
Mark Tyndale, who represents Aset Magomadova, pointed to a statement of agreed facts entered in the second-degree murder trial. He said 14-year-old Aminat Magomadova, who died Feb. 26, 2007, had been "habitually running away from home, boasting that she was using drugs, being sexually active and stealing" --behaviour that caused stress for the rest of the Muslim family.
Documents note Aminat had pleaded guilty to assaulting her teacher, Rhonda Wakely, on Oct. 4, 2006, and on the day she died, she was to appear in court to be sentenced, but did not want to go.