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October 2023
Volume 9 | Issue No. 75
Brenda Clubine spent 26 years in prison for killing her
husband. After years of enduring beatings and ER visits,
she said the abuse finally ended in a locked motel room.
Clubine's 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, Rosemary 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 was, 'What
more could I have said to express to her the importance
to get away?'"
As many as four million women die each year at the
hands of their partner or spouse. Victims who fight back,
like Clubine, Dyer, Virgil and thousands more, often face
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.
Prime examples are three women in Missouri who have
served decades in prison after defending themselves
against spousal abuse. All three served 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. Their defense was that these women
were driven to kill after suffering repeated abuse from their
husbands.
MCCP also 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.
READ MORE
"I don't think I did anything wrong by protecting my children and our lives.
I think people want to 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"
Police responses to violence against
women of color and trans people of
color are informed by racialized notions
of gender, which dictate who is a
legitimate survivor of domestic violence,
and how a survivor is supposed to
behave. These norms determine who is
likely to be perceived as a perpetrator
of violence, and therefore arrested
regardless of the actual circumstances.
Learn more >
