JB: All in all, you and your co-counsel, Nadia Costa, invested seven years on this marathon of a case. Nadia is an extreme race runner, so she had lots of experience pacing herself. How did you keep going, year after year, without finally tossing in the towel?
JS: After representing Deborah Peagler for a year or so, my father-in-law, a career public defender, asked me about the case. After I gave him the details, his eyes narrowed and he asked: "Have you befriended your client?" I thought about it and decided that I had. "Big mistake," he said. "That's a total rookie move, very unprofessional." He was right, of course, but it was the best mistake I ever made since it allowed me to have an investment in Deborah and her quest for freedom that was personal. Once we were friends, it was unthinkable to abandon her behind those bars and walk away. My perseverance was also informed by my own experiences as a child, watching my stepfather batter my mother. I always wished I had a time machine that could bring me back to protect my mother. Defending Deborah was the next best thing, and I couldn't back down.
JB: October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. What's your involvement with that?
JS: Advocates first designated October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in 1987, but we've got a long way to go. Domestic violence as a topic of "acceptable" conversation is still an emerging idea and a large portion of America chooses to believe that family violence doesn't happen to people like them. The two projects I've been working on most recently - Crime After Crime and Free Spirit - are both powerful stories and both are entertaining and effective ways to educate the uninformed about domestic violence and to give strength and courage to those who are in it. So, I've been talking with audiences of all kinds in the Bay Area, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania about these issues and making people realize that one in four women will experience some form of abuse, even women like them.
JB: That's a sobering statistic. You've mentioned how much you admired Deborah, Joshua. For those who haven't yet seen Crime After Crime, what was so special about her?
JS: She was an inspiringly positive, charismatic, and effervescent person. From the second I met her, I knew she was somebody special. I would get depressed after only a few hours visiting prison, but Deborah would cheer me up, ever upbeat though she was serving life on the inside. She believed that G-d put her in prison to teach the illiterate to read and help women fight addiction and find healing through love and song. She was the leader of the largest prison women's gospel choir in the world and when she sang or began to speak from the heart, her face would glow and her eyes would sparkle. She was the kind of person I would have cleaved to had I met her socially, and it was such an amazing surprise to find her locked away in a maximum security prison.
young Safran, on the road by historic photo
courtesy of the author
JB: I noticed in the film that the length of your hair varied widely. There's a story behind it. Can you share it with us?
JS: In 2005, we negotiated a written plea agreement with the Los Angeles District Attorney's office for Deborah's immediate release. When the District Attorney suddenly refused to honor the deal as required by law, we were shocked and outraged and Deborah became very depressed. I honestly believed that it wouldn't take long to force the District Attorney to honor his agreement (since it was required under California Supreme Court case law) and, on the spur of the moment, I told her that I wouldn't cut my hair until she was out. I don't know why exactly that was the semi-vow I took, but it was.
I ended up with shoulder length hair and no end in sight. At that point, I was struggling to manage my long hair, both as a matter of grooming and as part of the corporate culture of my multinational law firm. I finally decided that I had made a mistake in taking on the commitment, and I actually assembled a Beit Din (a Jewish court of law) to annul the vow. The judges told me the vow was annulled provided I sought Deborah's release. She gladly gave it to me since she said she didn't like my hair that long anyway. It was another almost three years before Debbie was released so my hair would have been down to the middle of my back.
JB: Where have we come since that law was passed in California in 2002? What's going on elsewhere?
JS: California continues to lead the way and has amended its law a few times, allowing incarcerated survivors of domestic violence to tell their stories of abuse for the first time, even where their commitment offense was less than murder (e.g. a woman who was forced to drive her abusive partner to or from a robbery). California remains the only state with this kind of law on the books. I have been working with other advocates in New York and New Jersey to promote similar laws. I'm still waiting to see who will be the second state. It's really astounding that today, women are given the benefit of a domestic violence defense in court but women who were prosecuted and imprisoned for identical crimes before adoption of the law have no rights to tell their stories and seek exoneration or commutation.
JB: It does seem patently unfair. If readers want to learn more and get involved in raising awareness about domestic violence, what can they do?
JS: They should definitely contact their local domestic violence agencies to see how they can get involved. The need is practically infinite. In Chicago, SHALVA is a great resource and nationally, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is a great resource.
film ad by Yoav
Potash
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
