But in a divorce the division of community property is decided through negotiation and a judge rules on the final agreement. To use your analogy, the wife walked out of the marriage after helping to run up the credit cards, took every bit of joint property she could get her hands, and fired shots at the husband on her way out the door when he tried to keep part of it.
When the wife decides she wants out of a marriage, it isn't up to the judge to decide she must remain with a man she no longer wishes to be with. It's up to her.
To use your analogy, the wife walked out of the marriage after helping to run up the credit cards, took every bit of joint property she could get her hands, and fired shots at the husband on her way out the door when he tried to keep part of it.
God! You people are really terrible at putting forth analogies. Firstly, it is the *WIFE* that paid for the bulk of everything. Secondly, all the property in question was stuff any reasonable person would acknowledge would be her stuff after the divorce, thirdly your claim that she "fired shots at the husband" means she used lethal force that could have killed him, (presumably referring to Ft. Sumter Union) is a ridiculous over reaction to an event that in no way threatened the continuation of the Union.
This is more accurate. The wife said "I am leaving." He gripped her arm more tightly. She slapped him. He then beat her near to death and said "You will never leave me or I will kill you."
See? That fits all the bits perfectly. Oh, and he raped her before he was done.