Tondalo Hall will not be released early from her 30-year sentence for failing to protect her children from her abusive partner. The man who actually harmed her child got just two years.
Tondalo Hall
Courtesy of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections
OKLAHOMA CITY — Tondalo Hall, a battered woman whose lengthy prison term in a child abuse case has outraged women's rights advocates, had her plea for clemency denied on Wednesday.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted down her application for a commuted sentence, meaning Hall will remain in prison until at least 2030, when she becomes eligible for parole.
Hall is serving a 30-year sentence for failing to protect her children from her abusive boyfriend, Robert Braxton. Braxton received only a two-year sentence after he admitted to breaking the ribs and femur of their 3-month-old daughter. He has been free since 2006, while Hall, who was not accused of abusing her children, remains behind bars.
During a tense hearing, conducted via videoconference, the board's vice chair, Patricia High, grilled Hall over what she knew about her children's injuries, and when. "I don't love the facts of your case," High said. The vote against Hall was 5 to 0.
Hall spent most of the hearing choking back tears. "I know I failed as a mother, and I'm just asking for a second chance," she said. The board's chair, Vanessa Price, pointed out that since Hall's cousin adopted her children, Hall no longer has custody—or a legal say—over what happens to them.
Several of Hall's supporters had gathered in the audience awaiting the decision. "What is wrong with these people?" one muttered after the vote came down.
A BuzzFeed News investigation found that Hall was one of at least 28 mothers in 11 states who had been sentenced to 10 or more years in prison for failing to protect their children from abusers — despite evidence the mothers themselves had been abused.
Hall has alleged both in and out of court that she, too, had been violently abused by Braxton — Hall says that he had choked and punched her.
Hall's situation has drawn the attention of a national advocacy group, UltraViolet, which garnered more than 70,000 signatures on a petition demanding her release.
Hall has expressed remorse for not getting her children away from Braxton sooner: "I had a duty to protect my children and I failed," she wrote in her clemency application. But, she wrote, "I was trapped in an abusive relationship and I feared that alerting authorities would provoke [Braxton] to increase his violence. My actions, although detrimental to my family, were made out of fear rather than rationality."
Even the judge who sentenced Hall in 2006 at her original trial said that during her testimony against her ex-boyfriend, Hall seemed to be afraid of him. Parole board members spent little time dwelling on the issue of domestic violence, however, instead focusing on her failure to take action to protect her children.
Hall will now spent about 15 more years in prison.
After the hearing, UltraViolet, the group that has championed Hall's cause, tweeted: "This isn't justice."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1ixs232
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