epiod Administrator
| Subject: BATTERED, BEREAVED, AND BEHIND BARS Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:16 am | |
| - Quote :
- The first thing Latricia Chance saw when she walked up to the apartment that October morning was a toddler, alone and shoeless, eating cereal on the doorstep. It was her friend Arlena Lindley’s 3-year-old son, Titches. Chance said hello. Titches, his mouth full of food, said nothing.
Inside, she greeted Lindley and her boyfriend, Alonzo Turner. Chance knew the couple had gone through trouble in the past, and something seemed off between them now — it just wasn’t clear what. Then Turner stepped outside and dragged Titches into the living room. Titches had soiled his light-blue pajama pants. Turner, a 6-foot-2-inch, 220-pound factory worker, ordered the toddler to bend over and touch his toes. He whipped him with a thick leather belt, then threw him against the wall. Titches hit his head so hard that he spat out some of his breakfast. Turner took Titches by his neck and wiped his face in the half-eaten cereal. With Titches on his back and crying, Turner pressed his foot to the boy’s chest. Then he picked him up, dragged him to the bathroom, pushed his face into the toilet, and flushed. Turner turned to Lindley, warning her that if she tried to take Titches out of the house he would kill her. Chance could see the terror on Lindley’s face. Yet Lindley spotted an opening, grabbed hold of her son, and made for the front door. She was too slow. Turner snatched the boy from her arms and, still holding the boy, slammed the door shut on Lindley and Chance, locking them outside. Stunned, they withdrew to figure out what to do. By the end of the day, Titches would be dead, and Turner would be arrested for his murder. Prosecutors would charge Turner with assaulting Lindley too, noting that she was “very afraid” of him. Yet they would also deem Lindley a criminal. Even though Lindley had tried to rescue her son, they would prosecute her for failing to protect him from Turner. Her sentence: 45 years in prison. Lindley’s case exposes what many battered women’s advocates say is a grotesque injustice. As is common in families terrorized by a violent man, there were two victims in the Lindley-Turner home: mother and child. Both Lindley and Titches had suffered beatings for months. But in all but a handful of states, laws allow for one of the victims — the battered mother — to be treated as a perpetrator, guilty not of committing abuse herself but of failing to protect her children from her violent partner. Said Stephanie Avalon, resource specialist for the federally funded Battered Women’s Justice Project, “It’s the ultimate blaming of the victim.” Read the entire article [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]What would you have done in this mothers situation? Do you think that she is a victim in this crime? Should she be in jail for the death of her son? Do you think that the jail sentence was just? |
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Freebird VIP
| Subject: Re: BATTERED, BEREAVED, AND BEHIND BARS Fri Oct 03, 2014 9:20 am | |
| This is really fucked up!! Obviously a mothers first instinct is to protect her child and yes, she should have made an escape long before it came to this but being a battered woman, person, is very complicated and very difficult to overcome especially without help. I do not think the punishment for this woman fits the crime at all. She needs help not prison! |
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Guest Guest
| Subject: Re: BATTERED, BEREAVED, AND BEHIND BARS Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:22 pm | |
| She should have contacted the police and if she was not able to, the woman that witnessed everything should have called them. |
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bloggirl Blogger
| Subject: Re: BATTERED, BEREAVED, AND BEHIND BARS Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:30 pm | |
| i understand "withdrawing" to figure out what to do...but the what to do should have been immediately calling 911!!!! i dont think she should be in jail for 45 years for that though...she is a victim also... |
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prdlatinamami Blogger
| Subject: Re: BATTERED, BEREAVED, AND BEHIND BARS Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:20 am | |
| There is more she could have done and sooner as well as the witness. However she was scared n a victim as well. I don't think she should serve. |
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| Subject: Re: BATTERED, BEREAVED, AND BEHIND BARS | |
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