Free Woman Who Was Jailed for Life at 16 for Killing Her Rapist

[Demeter]

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/ask_gov_schwarzenegger_to_release_human_trafficking_victim_sara_kruzan_with_time_served

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/336349/petition%3A_free_woman_who_was_jailed_for_life_at_16_for_killing_her_rapist/#paragraph3


Of all the horrible stories of human rights abuses out there, this is one of the more stomach-turning. A girl who was trafficked as a sex worker and repeatedly raped starting at age 13 is serving life in prison for doing the only thing she could think of to escape: killing her pimp...

[Schema Thing]

1. kick -

[ZombieHorde]

2. Recommended. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

3. On other threads, precious Americans are claiming that at 16

Willow Palin is just a child, far, far too young to be publically criticized for her public actions.

[Stuart G]

4. K and R.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

5. Don't forget the petition! Very important

Thank you for posting--
K, R, and signed

[xocet]

6. Kick (too late to recommend) n/t

[struggle4progress]

7. A case for clemency for Sara Kruzan (SF Chron editorial 7 Nov)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

... when we say that Sara Kruzan, who was sentenced to life without parole at the age of 16, is up against long odds with her clemency petition, we mean that Kruzan's odds are very long indeed. Still, we urge Schwarzenegger to grant her petition. He won't find a more compelling case before he leaves office.

Kruzan's industriousness as a youth - she was on the honor roll and the student body president - couldn't erase the effects of a long history of abuse and neglect. Her mother, who was addicted to drugs, physically abused her. She was molested and gang-raped by men from her neighborhood as a child. And the 36-year-old man she shot and killed just two months after she turned 16 was her pimp.

The man had first sexually assaulted her when she was 11. He put her to work for him on the streets when she was 13. In a 2007 interview, Kruzan described a horrific existence of abuse at the hands of this pimp, who forced her to walk the streets from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and didn't hesitate to beat her ...

The California Youth Authority evaluated her at the time of her sentencing and determined that she could be rehabilitated in the juvenile system, which would have resulted in her release at the age of 25. But a judge decided that she should spend the rest of her life in prison, without the possibility of parole ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/06/EDCL1F4RF5.DTL#ixzz15eaQSsa8


Clemency for Sara Kruzan
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/opinionshop/detail?entry_id=76620