[Bernadette Powell, a black woman from Ithaca, New York, is now serving a 15-year-to-life sentence … because in 1978 she shot and killed her ex-husband.]
[T]he Tompkins county prosecutor … argued … that [she] had no reason to fear bodily harm from her ex-husband because although the man admittedly had committed many violent acts against her—there were hospital emergency room records and eye-witnesses to prove it—his motivation was ‘sexual’. In other words, a woman’s broken bones and broken spirit don’t count if the man who broke them had sex on his mind.” (emphasis mine)
from “Family Matters,” Ann Jones
