LSPC established the Habeas Project in collaboration with Free Battered Women, the California Women’s Law Center, and USC’s Post-Conviction Justice Project, in order to assist battered women in California state prisons in seeking retrials or reduced sentences under Penal Code Section 1473.5. The project could ultimately result in the release of scores of battered women in California’s prisons who have already served decades behind bars.
California is the only state that allows domestic violence survivors who are incarcerated for crimes directly related to their experiences of being abused and who were unable to introduce expert testimony on abuse during their trial proceedings to file for habeas relief. The Habeas Project, coordinated by LSPC, connects incarcerated survivors of domestic violence with pro bono attorneys to pursue their legal rights in court, and trains and supports those attorneys in seeking freedom for survivors who were unjustly incarcerated.
We are thrilled to celebrate the releases of 34 incarcerated domestic violence survivors since the Project’s inception in 2002. So far this year we have welcomed home 4 women – Mary Shields, Leeann Nabors, Marcia Bunney and Karen Narita – and we hope to see many more survivors returned soon to their families and communities.
For more information about this work, please contact Catherine McKee at 415-255-7036 ext. 309, or catherine@prisonerswithchildren.org. You can also explore the Habeas Project website or read more about the history of the Habeas Project here.
