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Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Black Woman Imprisoned For 25 Years for Killing Abusive Husband Now Fights for Domestic Violence Awareness

Latoya Dickens

Nationwide — Latoya Dickens, an African American mother from Gwinnett County, Georgia who spent 25 years in prison for killing her abusive husband, now advocates for domestic violence survivors. After being granted parole in September, she began sharing her story to raise awareness about the unfair treatment survivors face in court.

In 1998, Dickens was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing and killing her husband during a violent altercation. She had endured 14 years of abuse, including incidents like being thrown off a porch while eight months pregnant, according to WSB-TV.

On the day of the stabbing, Dickens attempted to leave, but her husband disabled her car. “He shoved me to the sofa, and everything happened so fast,” she recalled, adding, “I remember calling 911.”

Dickens’ attorney, Janis Mann, said her trial focused on the incident but did not consider her history of abuse. Mann later worked with the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence to present evidence of the abuse she had endured over the years. This evidence played a key role in the parole board’s decision to grant her release.

Moreover, Ellie Williams, who is from the coalition, noted that survivors are often sentenced harshly because the legal system overlooks the full context of a survivor’s history of abuse. She said, “Courts are really looking at one specific moment in time and that the law isn’t written in a way that we can consider context, circumstance, history.”

Statistics show that 77% of domestic violence homicides happen when victims attempt to leave. In Georgia, nearly half of domestic violence fatalities involve relationships that began when the victims were teens. Dickens was only 13 years old when she met her then-17-year-old husband.

“I don’t feel like I’ve ever been free,” Dickens said, reflecting on her journey. Now, Dickens is dedicated to supporting other survivors.

“The rest of my life is going to be about helping people get to where I am today and that’s on the other side,” she told 11Alive. ” I want to make sure that I can remain a face for domestic violence and that I can help support the women that are still on the inside, because I feel like they all deserve a second chance, just like I’ve been given today.”