Clemency For Melissa Chapman

In 1987, at the age of 18, Melissa Chapman was beaten, kicked, cut, bitten, burned with cigarettes, spit and urinated on, handcuffed during beatings, raped, locked in closets and threatened with a loaded gun to the head by her drug-addicted boyfriend. She left him several times, but he dragged her back with both promises and threats of death. To her horror, he shot and killed a man who was sitting with them in a truck during a drug deal. Terrified because he threatened to kill her as well as her parents, Melissa did as she was told and helped him hide the body to protect her own life, as well as those she loved. For this, she was convicted of 1st degree murder and handed a natural life sentence with no possibility of parole.

We ask the Governor to take into consideration her condition as a battered woman leading up to and after the murder. Ms. Chapman asks that the Governor review her case in light of the recent case law in People vs. Wilson, 194 Mich App 599, 695 (1992); holding that allowed expert testimony on Battered Women's Syndrome to be presented at trial. Had Ms. Chapman been able to prove via expert testimony that she suffered from Battered Women's Syndrome, she could have used the defense of self-defense. In retrospect, Ms. Chapman satisfied the elements of self-defense in that she was justified in her subjective fear of being in imminent danger while in her boyfriend's company. This fear was reasonable given his repeated threats to harm her if she left him, and to his threats of killing her parents if she left him or turned him over to the police.

Ms. Chapman never was, nor has been a threat to anyone. She has been falsely convicted and held accountable for the actions of another and denied equal protection under the law simply because she was a victim of domestic violence.

Absolutely no justice is served by her continued incarceration at the expense of the taxpayers. At $28,000 a year for approximately 18 years already served, over $500,000 has been wasted to confine this woman who should never have been convicted in the first place. There is a point at which punishment becomes vindictiveness, and we the people believe that continuing Melissa Chapman's imprisonment would be just that.

Ms. Chapman's clemency is supported by The Michigan Battered Women's Clemency Project (http://www.umich.edu/~clemency/) .

We, citizens of the United States, respectfully request Ms. Chapman's clemency.