Joy Powell
Joy Powell is an activist, pastor, survivor, and mother who is serving two sentences at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for crimes she did not commit. She was framed for a burglary-assault by an abusive ex-partner. During her trial, she was sentenced by an all-white jury and was not able to provide witnesses. She was sentenced […]
Annette Farrell
Annette “Annie” Farrell is a proud survivor and mother of four young children, currently serving a term of 15 years at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. After striving for over a decade to protect herself and her family from their abusive father, Annie was convicted of aiding him in the crime of sexual assault. At […]
Tanisha Davis
Tanisha Davis is a caring 32 year-old single mother serving a 14-year sentence in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women after acting in self-defense against her abusive partner. In 2013, she was convicted by a Rochester jury of first-degree manslaughter, after stabbing her violent abuser a single time in the shoulder in an act of […]
Joanne Armour
Joanne Armour is serving 20 years to life for defending herself and her 14 year old daughter against an attack from her close friend of eight years, Lacandace Miles, in December of 2013. Despite her desire to go to trial, she maintains that she was pressured into taking a plea after she felt threatened with […]
Breanna Simpson
Breanna Simpson is serving 25 years for defending herself against a man who tried to kill her on numerous occasions. She is a survivor of a long struggle to be free of drugs and alcohol, the loss of custody of her children, and severe abuse at the hands of men in three successive relationships. Breanna […]
Cynthia Galens
Cynthia Galens Cynthia Galens is a survivor of three abusive relationships, including two marriages. The third relationship ended in the death of Kevin Stack, for which she is serving a sentence of 23 years. Cynthia acknowledges that she poisoned Kevin after he had threatened her life and the life of her young daughter. Her intent […]
Laura Martin
Laura Martin Laura Martin is serving a 20-year sentence for killing her father, a man who had physically and sexually abused her since childhood and who threatened to do the same to her five-year-old daughter. Throughout her childhood, Laura Martin’s father molested her. No family member ever intervened or even acknowledged the abuse. In response, […]
Theresa Debo
Theresa Debo Theresa Debo has survived a lifetime of horrific abuse. Now 14 years into a 22-years-to-life sentence for second degree murder, Theresa will turn 62 in November 2018. Unless Governor Cuomo grants clemency, she will remain in prison until she is at least 70 years old. From early childhood, Theresa suffered severe physical abuse […]
Kelly Forbes
Kelly Forbes In 2001, Kelly Forbes immigrated from her native Trinidad with her young daughter to Brooklyn. She was a single parent with a history of trauma, and wanted to be near her family. She married Michael one year after meeting him in the doctor’s office where she worked as a medical assistant. She was […]
Darlene Benson-Seay
Darlene Benson-Seay Though she didn’t do it, Darlene Benson-Seay is incarcerated for killing her boyfriend, Ronnie, who abused her violently for years. He’d fallen into debt to two drug dealers, who came to collect one night—knocking Darlene out and stabbing Ron. After Darlene called 911 and tried to help Ron survive, she was charged with […]