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Convicted Survivors: The Imprisonment of Battered Women Who Kill, by Elizabeth Dermody Leonard. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002. 202 pp. $57.50 cloth. ISBN: 0-7914-5327-8. $18.95. ISBN: 0-7914-5328-6.
In April of 2002, California Governor Gray Davis approved the release of Cheryl Sellers, a victim of domestic violence who spent 19 years in prison for the murder of her abusive husband. Davis' action was surprising, since he had recently blocked the parole of six other abused women. The publicity surrounding these cases sparked debate about the justice of imprisoning women who kill their abusers. Elizabeth Dermody Leonard's Convicted Survivors is a timely study of 42 of these women. Drawing on surveys, in-depth interviews, and participant observation in a prison support group for battered women, Leonard provides a glimpse of the abuse the women suffered, both at the hands of their batterers and at the hands of the legal system. She uses the women's stories to craft policy suggestions for law enforcement, the judicial system, prison personnel, and the medical and educational systems.
In the early chapters of Convicted Survivors, Leonard describes her methods, goals, and perspective. In the tradition of feminist researchers, she emphasizes the importance of...