Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
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You have a state sanctioned alibi!
Is this a justified defense? Why don't more women just leave, get a restraining order, buy a gun, and divorce the lousy piece of shit? With all the female victim advocate agencies out there, why not?
Marva Wallace, 44, who was convicted of fatally shooting her husband in 1984, is the first woman in California to be released -- pending a new trial under the law.
The decision, hailed by advocates for battered women, was handed down just two weeks after Gov. Gray Davis reversed the state parole board's decision to grant Wallace parole.
"I never thought this day would come," said a jubilant Wallace, who was spending Friday night at her mother's house savoring her freedom after 17 years behind bars.
With two dozen relatives, Wallace shared a celebratory meal of steak, corn bread and cabbage specially prepared by her mother.
"For years I told her that if I ever got out that's what I wanted her to make," said Wallace, who plans to attend daughter Keishawna's wedding in North Carolina next month.
The law that led to Wallace's freedom might open prison gates for other battered women. It went into effect in January and allows a woman to go back to court if she was convicted before 1992, when the battered-woman defense was recognized. A women who was not allowed to use that defense in trial also may have her case reviewed. In both instances, the woman must show that the defense might have influenced the jury.
The law created a pipeline of about 100 cases to be investigated by the state Board of Prison Terms. Last year, the board reviewed a third of them, finding some evidence of battered-woman syndrome in 14 cases.
"To the best of my knowledge, Marva Wallace is the first to have the court act based on the substantiation of battered woman syndrome," said William Sessa, a spokesman for the board.
In Friday's order, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley said Wallace most likely would not have been convicted of murder if expert testimony regarding battered woman syndrome had been allowed as evidence in her trial.
"The court finds the defendant clearly was a battered woman," Wesley said in overturning her conviction and ordering her immediate release.
Friday's development coincides with an escalating controversy over the governor's record on parole for murderers. In more than 140 cases involving murderers, the governor has overruled the parole board in all but two, both of them battered women. However, he's denied parole to a handful of other battered women.
Civil liberties groups and advocates for battered women have accused the governor of pursuing a blanket no-parole policy for murderers, an accusation he denies.
The California Supreme Court is considering whether Davis has abused his powers by overruling his parole board and denying parole to murderers who have served the minimum sentence in prison.
Wallace was convicted of murder after she shot her husband three times in the back of the head as he sat watching television.
The woman, who had no prior criminal record, said he had repeatedly abused her during the year they were married. On the day of the murder, she said he became enraged after she asked him if she could take her daughter to her mother's house. He slapped her in the face, she said, and grabbed her neck. Then, she said, he forced her to orally copulate him in front of her daughter.
She took her daughter to her bedroom, retrieved a semiautomatic pistol she had bought and hidden a month before, then shot her husband.
She ultimately confessed to the crime. A jury convicted her of first-degree murder and she was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
"This was her last hope of being free," said Olivia Wang, the San Francisco- based coordinator of the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison. "The new law is an extraordinary measure that recognizes that these women never should have been convicted of murder.
"California is the first, and we believe, only state in the nation to have such a law. There are thousands of other women like Marva across the nation."
Wallace was deemed eligible for parole by the state Board of Prison Terms, which found that she suffered from battered woman syndrome at the time of the killing.
Well?
Is this a justified defense? Why don't more women just leave, get a restraining order, buy a gun, and divorce the lousy piece of shit? With all the female victim advocate agencies out there, why not?
Marva Wallace, 44, who was convicted of fatally shooting her husband in 1984, is the first woman in California to be released -- pending a new trial under the law.
The decision, hailed by advocates for battered women, was handed down just two weeks after Gov. Gray Davis reversed the state parole board's decision to grant Wallace parole.
"I never thought this day would come," said a jubilant Wallace, who was spending Friday night at her mother's house savoring her freedom after 17 years behind bars.
With two dozen relatives, Wallace shared a celebratory meal of steak, corn bread and cabbage specially prepared by her mother.
"For years I told her that if I ever got out that's what I wanted her to make," said Wallace, who plans to attend daughter Keishawna's wedding in North Carolina next month.
The law that led to Wallace's freedom might open prison gates for other battered women. It went into effect in January and allows a woman to go back to court if she was convicted before 1992, when the battered-woman defense was recognized. A women who was not allowed to use that defense in trial also may have her case reviewed. In both instances, the woman must show that the defense might have influenced the jury.
The law created a pipeline of about 100 cases to be investigated by the state Board of Prison Terms. Last year, the board reviewed a third of them, finding some evidence of battered-woman syndrome in 14 cases.
"To the best of my knowledge, Marva Wallace is the first to have the court act based on the substantiation of battered woman syndrome," said William Sessa, a spokesman for the board.
In Friday's order, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley said Wallace most likely would not have been convicted of murder if expert testimony regarding battered woman syndrome had been allowed as evidence in her trial.
"The court finds the defendant clearly was a battered woman," Wesley said in overturning her conviction and ordering her immediate release.
Friday's development coincides with an escalating controversy over the governor's record on parole for murderers. In more than 140 cases involving murderers, the governor has overruled the parole board in all but two, both of them battered women. However, he's denied parole to a handful of other battered women.
Civil liberties groups and advocates for battered women have accused the governor of pursuing a blanket no-parole policy for murderers, an accusation he denies.
The California Supreme Court is considering whether Davis has abused his powers by overruling his parole board and denying parole to murderers who have served the minimum sentence in prison.
Wallace was convicted of murder after she shot her husband three times in the back of the head as he sat watching television.
The woman, who had no prior criminal record, said he had repeatedly abused her during the year they were married. On the day of the murder, she said he became enraged after she asked him if she could take her daughter to her mother's house. He slapped her in the face, she said, and grabbed her neck. Then, she said, he forced her to orally copulate him in front of her daughter.
She took her daughter to her bedroom, retrieved a semiautomatic pistol she had bought and hidden a month before, then shot her husband.
She ultimately confessed to the crime. A jury convicted her of first-degree murder and she was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
"This was her last hope of being free," said Olivia Wang, the San Francisco- based coordinator of the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison. "The new law is an extraordinary measure that recognizes that these women never should have been convicted of murder.
"California is the first, and we believe, only state in the nation to have such a law. There are thousands of other women like Marva across the nation."
Wallace was deemed eligible for parole by the state Board of Prison Terms, which found that she suffered from battered woman syndrome at the time of the killing.
Well?
