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If in the course of your work, you come in contact with a battered woman charged with a crime (who may be facing trial or considering a plea, going through a trial, waiting to be sentenced, or if her case is on appeal) or a battered woman who is in jail or prison, please contact the national Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women. The staff of the National Clearinghouse, comprised of two full-time staff people and part-time consultants, will work with you to assess the situation and determine how they can be of assistance. For example, we work with battered women charged with killing their abusers, women who are coerced into criminal activity, and women who are charged with a crime a result of "failing to protect" their children from their batterers violence and/or abuse.
Examples of when to call the National Clearinghouse:
If the woman is charged with a crime. Staff works with members of the defense teams -- defense attorneys, expert witnesses, battered women's advocates, investigators and the woman herself -- in identifying defense strategies, providing relevant case law and examples of litigation materials, identifying expert witnesses when needed/requested, and helping to identify support networks for the woman who is facing trial or whose case is on appeal.
If the woman is in prison. If there are any legal options available, or if the woman is pursuing a clemency or parole application, we work with her local counsel and/or advocates. We also correspond with hundreds of incarcerated women nationally. Membership to our Supporting Members' Network is free for women in prison and incarcerated women who join receive our newsletter, Double-Time, free of charge.
If your state is working on a clemency campaign/clemency petitions. We have an extensive resource library of information about clemency generally and battered women's clemency actions specifically. Staff can help think through some of the ups and downs of clemency campaigns and provide information about other people who have worked on clemency issues in the past.
If your program/organization is currently running or planning to run a support group for women in prison. Staff will provide you with information about other support groups around the country. We can connect you with other group facilitators and give you information about curricula used by some of the groups. We published a set of Working Papers about prison and jail support groups in 1991.
If your state is thinking about introducing or has introduced legislation that directly impacts on battered women charged with crimes. Staff will help assess the current situation in your state, help analyze the proposed legislation, and provide information about similar legislation in other states.
If you are doing research on battered women who kill (exploring legal, social or psychological issues), incarcerated women, or the legal or psycho/social effects of battering on women (sometimes referred to as battered woman syndrome). The National Clearinghouse has an extensive Resource Library and a companion Annotated Bibliography that lists the 4,000 cases, articles and litigation materials that are in our Library. If you have written something that you believe should be included in our Resource Library, please send us a copy and we will gladly review it for possible inclusion.
If you have information about battered women charged with crimes please contact the National Clearinghouse. We count on people like you in the field to keep us up to date about what is going on in your state that affects battered women defendants and incarcerated battered women so we can pass this information along to others. Please send us newspaper articles, legislative proposals, information/feedback about expert witnesses and defense attorneys, prison support groups for battered women, etc.
The Advocate, Vol. 20, No. 2 (March 1998)