I am not, repeat, am NOT, condoning this man's actions. But we have to understand that until we get to the root cause, and fix it, we will have more sad stories like this. It is HORRIBLE what this man did. Now let's get to the why, and prevent it in the future.
We can, many of us, stand here and say that we believe men are the heads of the household and that no "real" man would ever do such a terrible thing. We can make the assumption that he must be a brute and a control freak. We can make all kinds of claims that "our" men would never do such a thing. But we've never pushed them to that limit. We don't know, really, what they are capable of.
It is not an excuse to say that women can push men into doing terrible things. It is a fact that, when women, with the courts approval, strip men of so many rights and dignities, giving them no recourse, they may go over the edge. There are so many cases out there of where the man is desperately trying to do the right thing, but is beaten down and not allowed to. He may be choosing to do good over evil, but is prevented from it, and so chooses to us what appears to be evil, but in his desperate mind may be the only, or best, alternative. Again, it's not right. But it is becoming prevelant in this country, and women, along with the courts, have the power to stop it.
However, you have just brought up another point which I have very little hope for. As much as I pray for the entire world to mend it's evil, selfish ways, I do not believe that any law or wholesale change in societal attitudes towards human beings will stop some human beings from making EVIL choices or stop certain people like wife and husband abusers from blaming the victim or doing harm towards the one (and those close to the one) that they feel is the cause of all of their troubles. This stuff has been happening since the dawn of time. It's only recently that we have had more access to knowing quickly that it occurred (mass media saturation) and more Oprah's and lawyers to convince us that the twinkies (or ex-wives) caused these people to go off the deep end and that it is becoming an epidemic.