Issue link: http://accesshealth.uberflip.com/i/1022933
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. Their defense was that these women were driven to kill after suffering repeated abuse from their husbands. MCCP argued that at the time of the women's arrests, few resources were available for battered women, domestic violence was poorly understood and evidence of abuse was not routinely presented in trials. In 2007, a law passed in Missouri that said offenders who had murdered their spouses could be eligible for parole if they served 15 years in prison, had no prior felony convictions and had a history of "substantial physical abuse or sexual domestic violence" not presented at trial. Still, the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole twice denied these women their freedom. After the second rejection in 2009, MCCP sued the paroleboardandgotanothercourtorderforcing the board to reconsider the cases. Hearings were held in Jefferson City last year. Two of the women, one 56 and the other 66, were granted parole last year. The third woman, 58, was freed from a Missouri prison this year. "Thejourneytofreethenalthreewaslongand hard," said Patricia Harrison, J.D., assistant clinical professor of law at St. Louis University and a member of MCCP. "All of the women had exemplary institutional behavior, no prior record, excellent work history in and out of prison and strong family support. Most signicantly, all had suffered years of torture at the hands of their husbands – and they had not been allowed to present evidence of their abuse to the jury." Harrison said when she rst became involved in 2007, she assumed that the parole hearings would be a formality. She said the abuse these women had suffered was horric and was supported by letters and afdavits of witnesses to the injuries or incidents of abuse. "The reality was different from what I had imagined: two parole denials, two Writ of Mandamus (used in cases where there is a specic right but no legal remedy to enforce that right) victories and nally success in the third try," Harrison said. Solidarity, a women's rights group, contends that in the U.S., killing in self-defense is not a crime. However, for most women, neither the laws of self-defense nor evidence of battering work in actual trials. As a result, Solidarity estimates that 75-80 percent of women who killed in self-defense are convicted or convinced to plead guilty, and thus sentenced to long prison sentences. "You'd be surprised how society views battered women and the judgment they have for them," said a woman who goes by the name "Kelli," who was sent to prison at 19, and served 15 years for killing her husband. She said the rst thing the prosecutor said to her was, "Why didn't you call the hotline?" Kelli said she didn't know about hotlines, and she tried to get help before. Some of her own family members said she caused her situation by staying with her abuser. Battered Woman Syndome (BWS) was used as defense in Kelli's trial and failed. BWS, also referred to as the battered woman's defense, is characterized by depression and an inability to take independent action to escape the abuse. The condition explains why abused people may not accept assistance, or leave an abusive situation. "Idon'tthinkIdidanythingwrongbyprotecting mychildrenandourlives.Ithinkpeoplewantto see a sense of remorse from people who kill their abusers. But how can you have a sense of remorse for a person who is killing you, daily?" Kelli's boys were 16 and 17 by the time she was paroled.