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PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID EDDM RETAIL According to recent estimates, 4,500 women are incarcerated for killing an abusive partner. Local Postal Customer Marketplace Resources: HealthCare.gov Kaiser Family Foundation KFF.org Marketplace.CMS.gov CoverMissouri.org HCCNetwork.org/marketplace 24/7 National Marketplace Toll-Free Call Center 1.800.318.2596 TTY: 1.855.889.4325 accessHealth SHOP Toll-Free Call Center 1-800-706.7893 TTY: 1.800.706.7915 Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. (CST) The latest health care news to keep you in the loop. Battered Justice accessHealthNews.net accessHealthNews.net By Tonia Wright 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. 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 over 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 million women die each year at the hands of their partner or spouse. 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. Still, the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole twice denied these women their freedom. After the second rejection in 2009, MCCP sued the parole board and got another court order forcing the board to reconsider the cases. Hearings were held in Jefferson Systemically, crimes involving City last year. domestic abuse victims fighting back or even killing their abuser Two of the women, one 56 and are not given special the other 66, were granted parole consideration in the court system. last year. The third woman, 58, was freed from a Missouri prison A prime example is three women this year. in Missouri who have served decades in prison for defending "The journey to free the final three themselves against spousal was long and hard," said Patricia abuse. All three served sentences Harrison, J.D., assistant clinical dating back to the 1970s and professor of law at St. Louis 1980s. University and a member of MCCP. "All of the women had For 10 years, a group of attorneys exemplary institutional behavior, called the Missouri Clemency no prior record, excellent work Coalition Project (MCCP) argued history in and out of prison and for the women's release. Their strong family support. Most defense was that these women significantly, all had suffered were driven to kill after suffering years of torture at the hands of repeated abuse from their their husbands–and they had not husbands. been allowed to present evidence of their abuse to the jury." MCCP argued that at the time of the women's arrests, few Harrison said when she first resources were available for became involved in 2007, she battered women, domestic assumed that the parole hearings violence was poorly understood would be a formality. She said the and evidence of abuse was not abuse these women had suffered routinely presented in trials. was horrific and was supported by letters and affidavits of witnesses In 2007, a law passed in Missouri to the injuries or incidents of that said offenders who had abuse. "The reality was different murdered their spouses could be from what I had imagined: two eligible for parole if they served parole denials, two Writ of 15 years in prison, had no prior Mandamus (used in cases where felony convictions and had a there is a specific right but no history of "substantial physical legal remedy to enforce that right) abuse or sexual domestic victories and finally success in the violence" not presented at trial. 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 first 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. "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's boys were 16 and 17 by the time she was paroled.