Issue link: http://accesshealth.uberflip.com/i/1022933
Brenda Clubine spent 26 years in prison for killing her husband. After years of enduring beatings and ER visits, she said the abuse nally ended in a locked motel room. Her husband asked for her wedding rings. She said when she asked why, he said, "Because tomorrow they won't be able to identify your body without them." Clubine hit him in the head with a wine bottle. He died from blunt force trauma. Clubine, who was released not long ago from a California prison, still visits the facility at least once a month. She attends a support group she started more than 20 years ago called Convicted Women Against Abuse. Some of the inmates stand out, like the ones with gray hair and walkers. Glenda Virgil is 65, sits in a wheelchair and has spent almost 30 years in prison. She said her arrest photos show her husband's kick prints all over her back. Another inmate, Rosemay Dyer, is 60 years old and has been in prison since 1988 for killing her husband. Dyer said she receives letters from other domestic violence victims asking for advice. For six months, she communicated with a woman who was being abused by her baby's father. The letters stopped coming. Dyer later found out that the man killed the woman and the child. "He killed them both," she said. "The only thing I could think of is what more could I have said to express to her the importance to get away." As many as 4.8 million women suffer intimate partner-related violence every year. And victims who fight back, like Clubine, Dyer, Virgil and thousands more, are facing long prison sentences. According to the latest estimates, at least 4,500 women are currently incarcerated for killing an abusive partner. Systemically, crimes involving domestic abuse victims fighting back or even killing their abuser are not given special consideration in the court system. A prime example is three women in Missouri who have served decades in prison for defending themselves against spousalabuse.Allthreeserved sentences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. For 10 years, a group of attorneys called the Missouri Clemency Coalition Project (MCCP) argued for the women's release.