In re LeBlanc

I. BACKGROUND

Petitioner, 24 years old at the time, pleaded guilty in 1980 to second degree murder after he fatally stabbed a two-year-old boy. Petitioner was living with Brigid Williams and her two children. He was the father of the younger child, a daughter, but the older child, the stabbing victim, was not his child, despite being named Chester LeBlanc, Jr. (Chet, Jr.). Domestic violence was a regular feature of the relationship; petitioner later acknowledged abusing Williams “on a weekly basis.” Less than a week before the murder, he had thrown Williams into a closet, nailed the door shut, and “hidden” their daughter, before eventually releasing Williams. Late in the afternoon on the day of the murder, petitioner and Williams were in their bedroom. Defendant, who had been drinking, demanded to have sexual intercourse with Williams. When she refused, he threatened to “ ‘get a knife and cut your vagina out.’ ” Afraid, Williams submitted to rape. Afterward, defendant accused Williams of infidelity. He pulled a butcher knife from his sock and began cutting off her hair, in the process leaving large gashes in her scalp. After a struggle, Williams escaped upstairs to her sister’s…