MICHIGAN

COORDINATORS                BATTERED WOMEN’S CLEMENCY PROJECT        FOUNDER       

Lore Rogers, Attorney                                         1019 Maiden Lane                                                                      Susan Fair

Lynn D’Orio Attorney                                    Ann Arbor, MI  48105

Kammy Mizga, Attorney                                         734 662 0776

Carol Jacobsen, Professor, Uof M               www.umich.edu/~clemency                                             jacobsen@umich.edu

Endorsements:

Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Michigan Counsel on Crime and Delinquency, Michigan NOW, Amnesty International USA, American Friends service Committee, Michigan CURE, Ann Arbor AAUW, Team for Justice, Michigan Women Lawyers Association, Women’s Commission, Safe House, Jean Ledwith King, Sen. Elizabeth Brater, Alma Wheeler Smith, Dawn Van Hoek, Sen. John Conyers, Jr., Rep. Lynn Rivers, Rep. Mary Schoer, Rep. Lynn Martinez, James Neuhard, Governor William Milliken, Helen Milliken, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Eve Ensler, William Edwards, Dr. Rosemary Saari, Human Rights Watch, National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, American Civil Liberties Union, University of Michigan, Michigan Women’s Foundation, First Step, Dr. Angela Davis, New Visions: Alliance to End Violence in Asian/Asian American Communities, Senator Michael Switalski, Rep. Frank Accavitti, Jr.,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        May 19, 2006

            Governor Jennifer Granholm has just denied 20 petitions for clemency that were submitted to her 2 ½ years ago by the Michigan Battered Women’s Clemency Project for battered women who acted in self defense or under duress because of their abusers.

            “Apparently , Governor Granholm is afraid to give support to battered women, or else she has political aspirations that she fears would be compromised by doing the right thing since these women have no power,” said Carol Jacobsen, Director of the Clemency Project. “The Governor led us to believe she’d act to assist at least some of these women but she let us down despite requests from several judges, including Norman Lippitt who admitted he “made a serious and tragic error” in the case of Karen Kantzler, who is serving life, and Judge Robert Webster, who admitted he didn’t have all the facts when he tried and sentenced Linda Hamilton t life. If the Governor took the lead to address this terrible wrong for women who were so unjustly tried and sentenced she would be showing strong leadership for women’s equal rights. These women who were given no protection from police or courts when they called for help, yet were blamed and prosecuted for saving their own lives. All of them have served too much time, been punished far too long. Two have served 29 years for crimes committed by someone else. Most have served over 18 years.”

           “Look at the statistics,” said Lynn D’Orio, lead attorney for the Clemency Project. “At least one woman is murdered by her abuser every week in Michigan. What is the Governor doing about this atrocity? No more than she is for women who have been killed but who saved their own lives only to be punished and sentenced to life. The reality is self-defense simply doesn’t work for women in Michigan courts. The law is interpreted according to male experience, certainly not a battered woman’s experience. We conducted a study in Oakland County covering the years 1986-1987 for several of our cases and found that 78% of women who were victims of domestic violence were convicted, while only 63% of all others were convicted. This meant these women could expect harsher sentences as well; most received life.”

            Jacobsen and D’Orio vowed to resubmit the petitions and more. “They represent only a fraction of the women in Michigan prisons who committed crimes in self defense and deserve clemency or some other relief from unfair judgments,” said Jacobsen. “We are beyond disappointed; we are angry. Governor Granholm has been stingy with mercy and has shown no integrity in addressing a criminal justice system that is out of control in this state, especially with regard to abandoning women’s human and civil rights. This affects every woman in Michigan. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations named Michigan’s women’s prisons as among the worst in the nation for human rights violations. So these women are not only receiving harsher sentences than they deserve, but harsher punishment as well. Several have been raped or assaulted by guards; and have suffered medical neglect that caused permanent injuries and disease. They have suffered enough.”