Louisiana DAs, domestic violence advocates at odds over relief for victims who kill abusers

The state Senate is set to consider new legal protections for victims of domestic violence and other abuse who kill in self-defense, a bill that, if passed, would defy Louisiana’s powerful district attorneys. 

The “Justice for Survivors Act,” or Senate Bill 215, would create a new justification defense for people accused of murdering their abusers. That’s not an entirely rare fate in Louisiana’s criminal justice system for women who resort to violence to try to escape human trafficking, intimate partner abuse and sexual assault.

It grant post-conviction relief to people with cases like Edna Gibson’s, who suffered abuse from her husband and stabbed him to death in 1986. Gibson received life in prison from a non-unanimous jury — which have since been banned in the state — and served 32 years of that term before Gov. John Bel Edwards commuted her sentence in 2020.

There was no such relief available then, Gibson recalled.

“People always wanna say, ‘Why’d you stay?,” she told the Senate’s Judiciary C Committee, which advanced the bill April 25. “Because I thought I was in love. But I was in love with my abuser.”

The bill has pitted two groups against each other that are often aligned: Louisiana’s district attorneys, who enjoy immense political power, and advocates for crime victims. Prosecutors around the state often cite a need to prioritize victims’ families when lobbying for changes to charging and sentencing laws.

Those tensions were on display during the April committee hearing. Since then, the Louisiana District Attorneys’ Association has fought to limit the bill’s scope, arguing in meetings with lawmakers that the legislation could let serial killers avoid jail time, according to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge. 

SB 215 is set for a hearing on the Senate floor on Monday. 

During the committee hearing, advocates accused the DAs of trying to cover up potentially unflattering past cases where abuse victims ended up locked up.

“I can see why district attorneys would be concerned about the image that may come out if some of these cases do get post-conviction relief because, frankly, it doesn’t look great,” said Mary-Patricia Wray, a lobbyist for Louisiana Survivors for Reform.

In a written statement, LDAA Director Loren Lampert said the association shares Barrow’s goals of achieving justice for victims. He hopes to reach a “common understanding” on the bill’s language, but said that the bill in its current form could have broader impacts than intended.

“The district attorneys’ support for victims, survivors, and their families is unequivocal,” Lampert said. “However, this bill in its current form will lead to unintended consequences and in our measured estimation will harm many more victims than it helps.”

Barrow said the DAs’ are particularly opposed to a clause in the legislation that defines what makes someone a victim and thus eligible for relief. That language, which is being tweaked in negotiations, defines eligible defendants as people who commit crimes under duress of “intimate partner violence, domestic abuse, human trafficking, or sexual assault against the defendant.”

The defendant’s conduct must also be a “direct result” of that behavior, the bill reads.

People who fit the criteria could still face jail time under the measure but would be sentenced to lighter terms. The bill would also expand access to new trials for those victims. 

Jacob Johnson, an assistant district attorney in Calcasieu Parish, argued at the April hearing that the sentencing relief portion of the bill could be manipulated by defendants who aren’t its intended recipients.

“Two-third of folks on death row certainly have put on mitigation cases where they’ve had tales of child abuse that had nothing to do with what got them to death row,” he said.

Barrow has worked to tighten the language in recent days as the upper chamber twice punted votes on the legislation, she said, but has yet to reach a deal.

“I want to do something that’s substantive,” Barrow said.