Anna Bninski ‘23
Features Editor
Pictured: Film by Directors Natalie Pattillo and Daniel A. Nelson
[Content warning: discussion of abuse and interpersonal/sexual violence]
On April 6, the Domestic Violence Project at UVA Law hosted a screening of the new documentary And So I Stayed, which looks at the passage of New York State’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) through the lives of three women who were, or are, incarcerated for the homicides of physically abusive partners.
As folks may remember from 1L Crim, the self-defense doctrine typically requires that a party respond with reasonable force—and get out of a dangerous situation if possible. This structure tends to be weaponized against survivors of domestic abuse, as people ask them, “Why didn’t you just leave?” while disregarding the factors that keep victims in abusive relationships. Factors include financial control, isolation, emotional manipulation, difficulty bringing up or providing for children, and immigration status issues—not to mention the fact that leaving is the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship.
The DVSJA was introduced in the New York State Legislature in 2011 and finally signed into law in 2019. It allows judges to deviate from the regular sentencing scheme when they find that domestic abuse was a “significant contributing factor” to a crime committed by a survivor. Under the DVSJA, a judge can impose a shorter term of incarceration or, if appropriate, an alternative-to-incarceration program. The statute disqualifies third-time felony offenders and second-time violent felony offenders, as well as those convicted of first-degree murder and a few other serious crimes, such as terrorism. (The documentary doesn’t get into the statutory weeds, but these exclusions do a fair amount to undermine the opposition to the statute, depicted in the film, that characterizes the statute as a soft-on-crime, get-out-of-jail-free card).
The film traces the statute’s path to passage, and its high stakes for survivors, through personal stories.
Kim Dadou Brown, a central figure in the documentary, served seventeen years for shooting a partner with a history of physical abuse who was attempting to smother her. After her release, Brown became an advocate for the DVSJA and spent years collecting signatures and lobbying the state legislature while also struggling to maintain employment with a felony record.
Tanisha Davis was sentenced to fourteen years for the death of her child’s father, whom she stabbed once when he was attempting to choke her. The film includes her frantic 911 call, in which she begged the dispatcher to send help immediately and follows the dispatcher’s directions about how to stanch the blood flow. Under the DVSJA’s retrospective clause, which allows for re-evaluation of cases prior to 2019, Davis’s sentence was reduced to eight years—time served, essentially—and she was released to reunite with her son and the rest of her family, coming home in the midst of the COVID pandemic.
Nikki Addimando was sentenced to nineteen years to life for shooting her longtime boyfriend and the father of her children. Addimando had documented years of horrifying physical and sexual abuse, including medical records, and had tried to leave her abuser before. Her case, coming after the 2019 passage of the DVSJA, seemed like exactly the type of situation that the bill was written for. However, the judge in her case determined that there was no reason to believe that her partner was the one committing the abuse—this after the judge excluded evidence that the abuser had filmed his rape of Addimando and uploaded it to a porn site—and that Addimando was not eligible for a reduced sentence under the DVSJA.[1]
Mercifully, a pro bono appeal overturned this misreading both of the evidence and of the statute.[2] But Addimando remains imprisoned, and New York remains one of few states to have a statute equivalent to the DVSJA.
And So I Stayed is not a cheerful viewing experience. But, it’s a moving, educational look at the importance of legislation in real lives. Given the sad prevalence of domestic violence in our society, the film provides a beneficial perspective to anyone with the privilege to advocate for legislative change—and DVP plans to hold a second screening next October, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
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amb6ag@virginia.edu
[1] During her sentencing hearing, the judge told Addimando that it seemed like she didn’t want people to know that she “reluctantly consented” to sexual acts she was uncomfortable with…and maybe that was why she killed her partner and needed to spend two decades in prison? I guess it made sense to him.
[2] Coverage from the Poughkeepsie Journal quotes the prosecutor in the case as stating that, “It appears the court simply believed everything the defendant said at trial about the abuse she claims came from her victim,” whom he described as “by all accounts [] a loving father, son and brother, an eternally patient domestic partner — and the one who was really the abused in this case.” Given the extensive documentation of Addimando’s physical injuries, the prosecutor’s statement is a sad commentary on the continued need to educate about, and move away from, the default of disbelieving victims of abuse. (https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2021/07/14/murderer-nicole-addimando-sentence-reduced-domestic-violence-act/7967311002/)