Why Do We Jail Women Who Choose to Live?
(Trigger alert, this story contains disturbing
reports of assault)
By Matthew Behrens (rabble.ca, November, 2013)
Earlier
this year, the World Health Organization released a comprehensive study that
found more than a third of all women worldwide – 35.6% – will experience
physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. The great majority of this
violence is committed by intimate male partners in acts that can only be
described as domestic or home-grown terrorism. It’s the latest in an endless
stream of similar reports on this form of domestic terror, but Canada and other
governments refuse to both recognize the extent of the crisis and respond
accordingly.
When
the report was released, WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan declared,
"These findings send a powerful message that violence against women is a
global health problem of epidemic proportions. We also see that the world's
health systems can and must do more for women who experience violence."
The report found that of the women who experience direct attacks, 42% require
some form of hospitalization.
In
confirming what more than half of the population already knows is a daily
reality, the WHO report did not exactly produce a firestorm of response and
calls for urgent action from government leaders. Instead, their
“war on terrorism” focuses on racial and religious profiling, the jailing
of innocents, the closing borders to refugees, extra-judicial assassination by
Canadian-made drones, and continuation of indefinite detention and rendition-to-torture
programs. There are no massive interventions that address the greatest
purveyors of fear and violence in Canada and around the world: the men in
women’s lives.
As
of April, 2010, there were an astounding 593 women’s shelters in Canada. Earlier
this month, the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses released
its annual Femicide report, a grim reminder of women’s lives snuffed out by men
in Ontario during 2013 (http://www.oaith.ca/assets/files/OAITH%20Final%202013%20Femicide%20List-%20Nov%202013.pdf). And despite a United Nations call for Canada to develop a
comprehensive national review to end violence against aboriginal women,
Canada’s envoy to the UN in Geneva rejected the idea. Similarly, in 2010, Canada
adopted a National Action Plan for the implementation of United Nations
Security Council resolutions on Women, Peace and Security which included
supporting the rights of girls and women abroad, but it is unclear if anything
has been done because it has failed to deliver on its promise of annual and
midterm reports.
Perhaps that is due in part to the
fact that Canada’s rhetoric about supporting women’s rights (a mainstay of its
justification for the occupation of Afghanistan) rings hollow. In Afghanistan,
Canada’s presence does not appear to have moved things forward for women.
Indeed, the United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan reported last December that women who flee rapists and abusive
husbands are regularly jailed by the hundreds for alleged “moral crimes.” Among those jailed are those who have
defended themselves against and, in the process, wounded or killed rapists.
Lest
one conclude that Afghanistan is just “behind the times”, it is worth noting
that here in North America, women who choose to live by defending themselves are
similarly jailed in alarming numbers. In the U.S., the Michigan Women’s Justice and Clemency
Project, found: "The average prison sentence for men who kill their
intimate partners is 2 to 6 years. Women who kill their partners are sentenced,
on average, to 15 years."
Marissa
Alexander, an African-American mother of three, did not kill her abusive
ex-partner when he physically attacked her and threatened her with death only
nine days after she gave birth. She fired a warning shot into the ceiling to
scare him off, and as a result is serving 20 years of hard time in Florida. During her trial – one in which the judge
rejected her “stand your ground” defence, the same rationale used by the state
of Florida for failing to arrest the man who murdered Trayvon Martin –
Alexander recounted numerous incidents of severe physical abuse including
choking, attempted strangulation, and other incidents that
required hospitalization. She lost the ability to swallow as a result of
her injuries and lost ten pounds. She subsequently obtained a domestic violence
injunction against her ex. In 2010, when she was five months pregnant, she was
“head-butted” twice, her clothes torn, and she was also thrown to the ground.
During all these episodes—and at other times, as well—he threatened to kill
her. At trial, numerous witnesses testified about seeing Alexander's injuries,
while in-laws of her abusive husband testified about his reputation for
violence. One witness confirmed that Marissa Alexander met the criteria
for “battered person’s syndrome.”
On top of this, her abusive husband
admitted in a sworn affidavit, “The way I was with women…they never knew what I
was thinking or what I might do. Hit them, push them. …I honestly think
[Marissa] just didn’t want me to put my hands on her anymore, so she did what
she feel like she have to do to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt, you know. …The
gun was never actually pointed at me.”
While an appeals court recently
rejected her contention that she should have been granted immunity from
prosecution under Stand Your Ground (under which an individual can use deadly
force if “he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent
imminent death or great bodily harm”), it did find, in granting her a new
trial, that the jury was given the wrong instructions. The original judge
essentially placed the burden of proof on Marissa Alexander when it came to
showing that she was about to be attacked and needed to act in self-defence.
The appeals court confirmed that Alexander “was charged with aggravated assault
but – under any possible review of the evidence – inflicted no injury.”
While a new trial was a breakthrough,
Alexander’s supporters called on the state to drop the charges and let her go
free. Unfortunately, the state of Florida is pursuing the trial option, and a
hearing to determine whether Marissa will be freed on bond and returned to her
children (she has not seen her youngest child in three years) took place
earlier this month, with a decision expected by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the man who continually assaulted
her and threatened to take her life walks free.
I have had the privilege of corresponding
with Alexander while she has been in jail. She is a compassionate and
insightful person who recognized immediately upon going behind bars how many
women were also in her shoes: they too were in jail because they chose to live,
and the judicial system simply could not understand the terror that constituted
their daily lives.
Closer to home is the case of
Ottawa’s Ashley White, 25, who earlier this year was found guilty of
aggravated assault (and acquitted of attempted murder) for stabbing her abusive
former boyfriend. She faces a possible maximum of 14 years behind bars for
defending herself. According to press reports on her trial, White’s former
boyfriend, Patrick Halcro, aged 36, a veteran of the Afghanistan occupation who
suffers PTSD, often went into fits of rage and jealousy. He admitted in court
to punching her and smashing her head into a door frame. As QMI News reported,
he claimed, "I used proportional force. I felt threatened."
White
suffered a shattered nose and cheekbone, requiring facial reconstruction
surgery, in addition to post-concussion syndrome and a diagnosis of PTSD. The Ottawa Sun reported, “Medical evidence
suggested her head trauma and the shock of seeing her face bathed in blood
could have placed her in a state where she wouldn't have known what she was
doing when she stabbed Halcro. As for Halcro, the knife blade nicked his lung
but a trauma surgeon said the injury was relatively minor.”
At
one point in the trial, White’s lawyer noted that after pummeling her, Mr.
Halcro stepped over her bloodied body to retrieve his luggage. “Your luggage
was more important to you than checking on Ashley,” the lawyer said. According
to QMI News, “He said he didn’t realize the extent to which he’d hurt her until
he got his bag and noticed a lot of blood where White had collapsed.”
The
Ottawa Sun reported that White “remembers being pummeled on the floor as
he loomed over her until she could no longer see and felt like she was going to
die. He said: ‘I am trained to kill you and I will kill you’ or something like
that, White said.”
Four years after his horrific
beating, White remains out on restrictive bail, while her ex was never charged.
A community of friends has come together to try and assist her with her massive
legal bills, both for the trial and an expected appeal. That group has formed a
Facebook page, on which they write: “We strongly believe [Ashley] was wrongly convicted of aggravated
assault for stabbing her abusive ex-military boyfriend. After being beaten so
badly she would later require reconstructive surgery and in a state of near unconsciousness, Ashley fended off the
attack with a kitchen knife. It has never been explained why he was never
charged and why the lead detective never testified in court, yet Ashley’s life
is changed forever. Ashley’s friends and supporters are planning a fund-raising
event to help her cover the $90,000 accumulated costs to date and $50,000+ she
is facing in future legal fees.” To join that Facebook page, where you can leave
messages of support and donate to her costs, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Ashley-White/471297956316613
In the meantime,
Marissa Alexander’s supporters ask that you contact FreeMarissaNow@gmail.com and visit https://www.facebook.com/FreeMarissaNow and http://www.justice4marissa.com/
As Canada marks
the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November
25, it is a reminder of how much work remains to be done, not simply on
symbolic days, but every day as the war against women grinds mercilessly on.
