Jailed Domestic Abuse Victims Blog 6

Brenda Clubine spent 26 years in jail for killing her husband, and now because of new evidence she has been released. Brenda endured years of physical abuse at her husband’s hand and finally ended the abuse by killing him after he threatened to kill her. Clubine isn’t the only woman faced with the situation of facing lengthy jail sentences after killing an abusive spouse. Thanks to a bill signed by the California governor these women behind bars have a better chance of release if they can present new evidence to help their case. Within one California prison there is a support group for women who have been jailed for killing their abusers. These women and their struggle are being presented in a documentary called “Sin by Silence”.  The documentary serves the purpose of calling attention to the fact that if testimony providing information on “battered woman syndrome” were allowed in the courts in which the women had tried, they probably would have received lesser sentences or no prison sentences at all.

I do not believe in murder unless a person is in immediate danger of being killed. That being said I cannot begin to understand how a woman who was only defending herself from the threat of her abusive husband can be imprisoned for lengthy stretches of time or at all. I understand that sometimes it is difficult to determine whether allegations of abuse are true; some women are too embarrassed to report or get treatment for abuse. While other women are abused in such ways that is difficult to establish that they have been abused. But when there is clear evidence that a woman has suffered at the hands of her husband I don’t think it is just to put them in jail for a long time (or at all).One woman imprisoned for killing her husband had visible footprints on her back from her husband in her arrest pictures. Putting a woman behind bars does not help her after she has killed her spouse. I think that getting psychological help is more fitting than harsh prison sentences. On one hand I believe in law and order, and I know that nobody is above the law but I think the way that abuse victims should be dealt with in a more suiting way.

Article source:  http://www.npr.org/2012/10/05/162169484/jailed-domestic-abuse-victims-get-chance-at-freedom