CA law would allow abuse as a defense in violent crimes

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Susan Bustamante doesn’t give up.

The 71-year-old ex-prisoner has traveled from Orange County to Sacramento multiple times to urge lawmakers to pass legislation she says will help her fellow domestic violence victims facing criminal charges.

Each time, lawmakers appeared to support it, but then secretly shelved the bill.

She hopes the fourth year in a row will be different.

Bustamante drives again measure opposed by police and prosecutors, which would allow victims of human trafficking and intimate partner or sexual abuse to claim abuse as a legal defense when facing felony charges, except in most cases of murder.

Those who have already been convicted can also ask a judge to overturn their convictions. If the judge approves, your arrests and convictions will be treated as if they never happened. Your records will be sealed and destroyed. Fines and compensation owed to victims will be waived.

“I’m willing to fight for those who aren’t in the position I’m in right now to be able to speak up and … fight for it,” she said in an interview with CalMatters on Friday.

In 1987, Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors say she hired her brother to kill her husband, Stephen Bustamante, and that she helped dispose of the body in exchange for $100,000 in life insurance she shared with her brother.

Bustamante testified that during her two-day trial, she was not allowed to tell jurors how her husband repeatedly beat her and threatened to kill her. He said he only asked his brother for help.

“It never crossed my mind that I could kill Stephen,” he said. before the legislators last month. “Then he called me to tell me Steven had died. He threatened to call the police and say I planned it. He blackmailed me into paying Steven’s insurance. “I was afraid they were going to take my daughters away, so I turned myself in.

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown commuted Bustamante’s sentence in 2017 after learning his story and reviewing his unblemished prison record. Bustamante was released the following year, after three decades behind bars.

Bustamante said he does not meet the requirements to have his case dismissed under that measure.

California law already allows defendants to claim they suffered abuse and present expert testimony to explain how their suffering affected their behavior. Judges may also consider a defendant’s history of human trafficking and domestic violence when determining a sentence. This bill goes further by allowing them to claim such abuses as a legal defense when charged with a serious crime.

California law also allows those accused or convicted of non-violent crimes to petition the courts for similar legal protection.

Appropriations committees reject bills

In the years since her release, Bustamante has become involved with nonprofit organizations that help people like her overcome past abuse and incarceration as they seek to reintegrate into life outside of prison.

Bustamante testified for the first time before the Legislature about the need for the bill in 2023.

Each year since then, at least one of the Legislature’s two public safety committees has approved similar legislation before the Appropriations Committee rejects it.

Twice a year, the legislature’s two appropriations committees meet to quickly and without debate reject hundreds of bills.

like he informed CalMatters powerful interest groups, the governor’s office and state agencies covertly pressure committees to reject certain bills. Legislative leaders also use committees to block politically sensitive measures whose dissenting voices prefer not to be recorded in public hearings.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to consider next month the abuse bill introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Oakland Oh my god.

Democratic Senator from Riverside, Sabrina Cervantes the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, declined to comment through a spokesman.

Why the prosecutor’s office and the police oppose each other

Law enforcement officers fear it Assembly Bill 910 introduced by Bonta, allow violent criminals, including rapists, kidnappers and child abusers, to overwhelm California’s overcrowded court system with an avalanche of petitions to overturn their convictions.

They say it’s a particularly troubling example of how progressive Democrats continue to try to commute sentences for dangerous criminals without considering their victims.

“Allowing them to go unpunished for a violent crime is an absurd policy,” said Greg Totten, a former Ventura County district attorney and president of the state district attorneys’ association.

Totten noted that defendants now have the right to claim they were victims of abuse or human trafficking during sentencing hearings.

Bonta did not respond to an interview request, but last month he testified before the Senate Public Safety Committee that “AB 910 is a second chance law, a dignity law.”

“Survivors should not have to spend their lives paying for the abuse they suffered,” said.

According to CalMatters Digital Democracy Database at least 17 organizations, including ACLU California Action and the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, support the bill.

Supporters argue that virtually no one convicted of a violent crime would qualify under the proposed new law.

For the few who do, advocates say, it would be far more cost-effective to allow victims of abuse to reintegrate into society without their criminal records being used against them as they seek jobs, housing and other supports.

“If just one person gets help under this bill, it will be self-funding,” said Lee LaChapelle, director of policy and advocacy for the Coalition to End Slavery and Human Trafficking.