Supporters erupted in applause Friday as a New Orleans judge acquitted Catina Curley of second-degree murder in the killing of her husband, finding that the fatal shooting in 2005 was a justified act of self-defense.

Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter said “overwhelming evidence” showed the shooting was the product of years of abuse that Curley suffered before killing her husband Renaldo inside their New Orleans East home, four months before Hurricane Katrina.

Curley spent 10 years and 11 months locked up before the Supreme Court threw out her conviction and ordered a retrial last year, finding that her original trial attorney should have called experts on battered woman syndrome.

Curley hugged her attorney Christen DeNicholas as the verdict came down. Meanwhile, relatives of her husband Renaldo, who was 29 at the time of his death, sat in silence.

“It was a hard ride from the beginning to the end, but we fought through and we made it, by the grace of God,” Catina Curley said outside the courthouse afterward. “We've all been through enough, and it's over.”

Renaldo Curley’s sister, Siless Johnson, said she accepted the judge’s decision.

“She did the 11 years,” Johnson said. “It’s over now. We can close the chapter.”

The verdict was the culmination of years of legal battles over whether Catina Curley, now 46, was in the grip of battered woman syndrome when she shot her husband, who had a well-documented history of punching and choking her.

According to witnesses, on the night of the killing Curley arrived at her family's house and ordered her husband's guests to leave. The pair had an argument as they went upstairs to a bedroom. When Renaldo walked back down the stairs, Catina Curley followed and shot him.

She told police that her husband had placed his hands near her neck during the argument in their bedroom.

Supporters said that while Curley's attorney at her original trial exposed the beatings and chokings Renaldo gave her, he failed to call psychological experts who would have helped jurors conceptualize the shooting in that context.

Meanwhile, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office held fast to its position that Curley killed her husband without physical provocation while he was trying to leave the house. One of Renaldo Curley's sons testified at the original trial in 2007 and again this week that his father was putting on his shoes and jewelry when he was shot.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Guillory also argued that when she was pressed by a homicide detective, Curley seemed to back away from her claim that her husband had placed his hands near her neck. Police did not document any marks or bruises on her body shortly after the shooting.

A jury convicted Curley at her first trial in 2007. The Louisiana Supreme Court overturned her conviction last year, finding that attorney John Fuller should have called experts on battered woman syndrome to testify. That prompted Hunter to release Curley on $1,000 bail in June.

Fuller was present as the judge handed down his verdict Friday.

In a 10-page, written decision, Hunter said he believed Curley’s claim “that at the very least that Renaldo Curley either choked or pushed the defendant up against their bedroom wall, and proceeded to throw a can of peach soda at or in her direction.”

The claim that Renaldo Curley subjected his wife to frequent abuse was buttressed by the testimony of almost every witness who knew the couple, Hunter said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors failed to debunk psychological experts who talked about the effect of battered woman syndrome, a type of post-traumatic stress disorder, during tense incidents.

Concluding his opinion, Hunter said the case should serve as a wake-up call about domestic violence.

“This is indeed a tragedy. It is Renaldo Curley, a husband and father who was killed. It is Catina Curley, a wife and mother who was convicted of second-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison, and facing the prospect of a life sentence. It is the children, who witnessed the violence between their parents which still affects them to this day,” Hunter said.

He continued, “When, as a community, do we develop a comprehensive holistic plan and commit the resources to address domestic violence? When, as a community, do we do what is necessary to avoid the next Renaldo Curley and the next Catina Curley?”

Throughout his ruling, Hunter referenced the Supreme Court decision to overturn Curley’s conviction last year, which could set a precedent for other domestic abuse victims convicted of serious crimes in Louisiana.

Curley said she met many women in similar circumstances during her years in prison. She said she hopes to become an advocate for women who have suffered from domestic violence.

The case divided the Curley family, with children testifying for both the prosecution and the defense. Yet after she was acquitted, Curley walked up to Renaldo Curley’s father to talk with him.

“I still wanted to tell him I'm sorry for the loss ... just because you seen me smiling on the outside, I still have pain on the inside. That was my husband, and it's my children's father,” Curley said of their conversation.

She said she hoped that her children’s grandfather could now begin restoring their relationship with him. “That's something they didn't have when I was down there for 11 years. Enough is enough. It's time for peace,” she said.

Curley was represented at her retrial by DeNicholas and Majeeda Snead, a professor at Loyola University law school. Student attorneys Eliana Green and Leila Abu-Orf of the Loyola law clinic rounded out the all-woman defense team.

Guillory was joined by John Nickel and Michelle Jones of the District Attorney’s

Office.