California's Parole System Abuses Battered Women
Posted by: "Carol L"
Thu Aug 2, 2007 2:31 pm (PST)
California's Parole System Abuses Battered Women Run Date: 08/01/07 By Sandra
Kobrin
WeNews commentator Gov.
Schwarzenegger is about to make another decision in the case of
Flozelle Woodmore, a model prisoner whose release has been recommended
by parole boards six times. Sandra Kobrin says the governor must stop
playing politics with her life.

Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those
of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.
(WOMENSENEWS)
--Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California is scheduled to make another
decision on the parole of Flozelle Woodmore Aug. 10.
Let's all encourage him to do
the right thing.
California
has been groundbreaking in its defense of battered women. It is one of
the few states where an abused woman on trial for killing a domestic
partner is allowed to present expert testimony about battery and its
effects during the trial.
More importantly, it is the only
state that has a "habeas project," which allows an incarcerated
battered woman who was not allowed to present testimony on the effects
of battery in her initial trial (it only became allowable under law in
1992) to petition for a retrial and bring in the evidence that was
banned. In the five years since the California Habeas Project was
created, 19 incarcerated battered women have been released from prison.

But sadly, the state remains in the Stone Age when it comes to paroling the
survivors of domestic violence.
Numerous battered women have served the term of their original sentences, have
been found suitable for parole
(often more than once) yet remain imprisoned at the whim of the governor.
In
California, when someone convicted of first-degree or second-degree
murder is recommended for parole, the governor has the opportunity to
reverse the decision of the parole board. Woodmore's plight shows why
this can be such a bad system.
Over 20 years ago, then 18-year-old Woodmore killed her long-time abusive
boyfriend Clifton Morrow.
For the five years they were together, Woodmore stated he beat her in public, in
private and even when she was pregnant.
Threatened With Death One
day in August 1986, he had beaten Woodmore and she said he had
threatened to kill her 2-year-old son. "I started screaming at him,"
Woodmore said, according to press accounts. "He knocked me down and I
went and got my purse."
She had hidden a gun belonging to her stepfather in the purse. Woodmore shot
Morrow in the
chest.
Woodmore
was confused at the time of her trial. She thought she had acted in
self-defense, to save herself and her son, but because the laws did not
allow evidence of battered women's syndrome to be brought into the
trial, her public defender told her to plead to second degree murder.
She did and was sentenced 15 years to life. There was no trial.
Since
then, Woodmore, who dropped out of high school, has been a model
prisoner. She got her general equivalency diploma, became a battered
woman's counselor, president of Alcoholic Anonymous, received numerous
vocational certificates and not one disciplinary write-up.
Woodmore has expressed profound remorse and the victim's mother and sister have
written in favor of her parole.
The
judge who sentenced Woodmore wants her released. He believes Woodmore
was suffering from "intimate partner abuse and its effects" and that
evidence could have made a huge difference in her defense if she would
have gone to trial.
Here's the kicker.
Woodmore has been granted parole six times. In a row. She has appeared
in front of the state's parole board six times in six years and each
time the board members have found her suitable for release.
Six Decisions Denied But
to her horror, two governors--first Gray Davis and now Arnold
Schwarzenegger- - reversed every one of the parole board's decisions.
In
the past two years, Schwarzenegger has earned political currency by
consistently reversing decisions and currying favor with the
extraordinarily powerful correction officers' union, which represents
prison guards in the state.
"The parole system is a form of
abuse," says Gloria Killian, executive director of the Pasadena-based
Action Committee for Women in Prison and a wrongly convicted former
inmate who spent more than16 years in a California prison for a crime
she didn't commit. "It's a law in the state of California that when the
parole board finds you suitable, that's exactly what it means,
technically you should be released right then. But the parole system
has turned into a political game where a former Austrian bodybuilder
makes his own rules."
During
his campaign, Schwarzenegger, elected in the special election of 2003
after voters recalled Davis, said he was going to "let the parole board
do their job."
Initially that was true. In 2004, 72
lifers, including eight survivors of domestic violence, were paroled
and he upheld their parole. In 2006, however, not a single battered
woman was paroled.
2005 Ad Campaign Worked This
seismic shift is no accident, says Andrea Bible, director of the San
Francisco-based Free Battered Women. She says that it's a response to
the commercials that the California Correctional Peace Officers
Association ran in 2005 slamming him for lenient paroles. "What he's
doing now, not paroling survivors of domestic violence, is purely
political and had nothing to do with their cases. These women are not
dangers to the community."
Bible
cited the recent case of Sandra Redmond, who was granted parole twice
by the parole board, the second time in March 2007, and blocked by
Schwarzenegger both times.
In June, a petition filed by the
Habeas Project and Redmond's lawyer, Carrie Hempel, argued that if
evidence of battery had been admitted at her trial she would have
received a different verdict. The judge in the case changed her
conviction to voluntary manslaughter and released her on time served.
"She
was denied parole in March by the governor yet released by the courts
in June," Bible said. "Nothing changed about her dangerousness. "
Governors appoint parole boards to decide if prisoners have redeemed themselves
and deserve release.
Women
such as Woodmore--who some of us think do not belong in prison at
all--should not have their lives revolve around politicians looking to
score points with unions or get re-elected. They have suffered enough.

The governor can be reached at (916) 445-0873, e-mailed at http://www.govmail.
com.gov, or faxed at (916) 445-4633.
Sandra Kobrin is a Los Angeles based writer and columnist. Women's eNews
welcomes your comments.

E-mail us at editors@womensenews .org.

http://www.womensen ews.org/article. cfm/dyn/aid/ 3262



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