From Bolts Mag:
Karen Edwards had never spoken to lawmakers before last year. But this past June, she summoned the nerve to testify before them about her experiences with domestic violence. She spoke to them via video conference from MCI Framingham, Massachusetts’ sole women’s prison, where she’s serving a sentence of 15 years to life for the 2016 death of her abusive husband.
“He isolated me from my loved ones,” Edwards told the state’s joint committee on the judiciary when she testified on June 17. “He would stalk me when I go to work. He would follow me to work. He would take my freedom away, even when I’m in the house. I cannot have my phone, nothing.” In a tear-choked voice, she recalled him saying that if she loved him, she wouldn’t tell anyone about his violence. “He threatened that, if I leave, to kill me and my two kids,” she said just before ending her testimony.
Edwards was asking lawmakers to pass sentencing reforms to help her and other abuse survivors facing or imprisoned for charges related to their abuse. Continue reading >>>
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