Should People Who Killed Their Abusers Walk Free?
6/25/202639 min
In 2024, Oklahoma legislators passed an unusual law: It would create a pathway to freedom for people who could prove that domestic violence was a substantial contributing factor to their crime — even if that crime was first-degree murder. Members of a “survivor sisterhood” who’d found a connection in their shared histories of abuse hoped that, perhaps, they would all soon be going home. But, as reporter Pamela Colloff discovered, nothing would play out as expected.
Reporter: Pamela Colloff
Read More: https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-survivors-act-domestic-violence
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJessica Lussenhop· Host0:00
ProPublica. Investigative journalism in the public interest. As a heads-up, in this episode, you're going to hear about domestic partner abuse. If you'd rather not, maybe skip this one. As a reporter, I have covered a lot of subjects, but the one I spent the most time on is the criminal justice system, writing about police and crime and prisons. And over the years, that has had one very tangible result. I can't watch Law & Order anymore. I can't. This aversion is really to a specific kind of Law & Order episode, where the world it depicts is too tidy. The villains are so villainous, like an abusive husband who murders his wife. In the moment, it's like, "Hell yes, lock that guy up," TV off, and I'm ready for bed. It's supposed to feel really satisfying. But reporting on this stuff, even when I was just a baby reporter, you quickly learn that a lot of the millions of people locked up in US prisons are not cartoon villains. That's just not how real life works.
Pamela Colloff· Guest1:22
As we know from our reporting, there aren't really black-and-white narratives. There's a lot of gray.
Jessica Lussenhop· Host1:28
This is Pam Koloff,