{"id":413884,"date":"2026-07-27T14:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413884\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:41:09","slug":"california-bill-would-let-abuse-victims-use-trauma-as-legal-defense-for-violent-crime-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413884\/","title":{"rendered":"California bill would let abuse victims use trauma as legal defense for violent crime \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by\u00a0CalMatters<\/a>.\u00a0Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Susan Bustamante isn\u2019t giving up.<\/p>\n

The formerly incarcerated 71-year-old woman has repeatedly made the long trip from Orange County to Sacramento to urge lawmakers to pass legislation she believes would help her fellow domestic abuse victims facing criminal charges.<\/p>\n

Each time, lawmakers seemed supportive \u2014 and then killed her bill in secret.<\/p>\n

She hopes the fourth year in a row will be different. Bustamante is again pushing\u00a0for a measure<\/a>, which police and prosecutors oppose, that would allow survivors of human trafficking and intimate partner or sexual violence to cite their abuse as a legal defense when facing charges for violent crimes, with the exception of most murder cases.<\/p>\n

Those already convicted could also petition a judge to vacate their convictions. If the judge approves, their arrests and convictions would be treated as though they never happened. Their case files would be sealed and destroyed. Any fines and unpaid restitution to victims would be waived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m willing to fight for those who are not in the position that I am right now to be able to open my mouth and \u2026 fight for this,\u201d she told CalMatters in an interview on Friday.<\/p>\n

In 1987, Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors alleged she hired her brother to kill her husband, Steven Bustamante, and helped dispose of his body for a $100,000 life insurance payout she split with her sibling.<\/p>\n

Bustamante said she wasn\u2019t allowed to tell jurors in her two-day trial about how her husband beat her and repeatedly threatened to kill her. She said she only asked her brother for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that he would kill Steven never occurred to me,\u201d she\u00a0told lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0last month. \u201cLater, he called me to say that Steven was dead. He threatened to call the police and say I planned it. He blackmailed me for Steven\u2019s insurance. I was afraid of having my daughters taken from me, so I gave in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown commuted Bustamante\u2019s sentence in 2017 after learning her story and reviewing her spotless prison record. Bustamante was freed the next year after three decades behind bars.<\/p>\n

Bustamante said she would not qualify to have her case vacated under the measure.<\/p>\n

California law already allows defendants to cite abuse they experienced and call in expert witnesses who can explain how their suffering affected their behavior. Judges also can factor in a defendant\u2019s history with human trafficking and domestic violence during sentencing. This bill takes it further by allowing them to cite their abuse as a legal defense when charged with a violent crime.<\/p>\n

California law also allows those charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses to petition courts for similar legal relief.<\/p>\n

Appropriations committees kill bills<\/p>\n

In the years since her release, Bustamante got involved with nonprofits that help people such as her navigate their past abuse and incarceration as they seek to reintegrate into life outside of prison.<\/p>\n

Bustamante first testified before the Legislature about the need for the bill in 2023.<\/p>\n

Since then, each year at least one of the Legislature\u2019s two public safety committees approved similar legislation before an appropriations committee killed it. Twice a year, the Legislature\u2019s two appropriations committees meet to quickly and with no debate kill hundreds of bills.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0CalMatters has reported<\/a>, powerful special interest groups, the governor\u2019s office and state agencies secretly lobby the committees to kill bills. Legislative leaders also use the committees to kill politically touchy measures that lawmakers prefer not to go on record voting against in public hearings. The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to hear Oakland Democratic Assemblymember\u00a0Mia Bonta<\/a>\u2019s abuse bill next month.<\/p>\n

Riverside Democratic Sen.\u00a0Sabrina Cervantes<\/a>, the new chairperson of the Senate Appropriations Committee, declined to comment through a spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Why DAs and police oppose<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials fear Bonta\u2019s\u00a0Assembly Bill 910<\/a>\u00a0would allow violent criminals, including rapists, kidnappers and child molesters, to burden California\u2019s backlogged judiciary system with a rash of petitions to vacate their convictions.<\/p>\n

They say it\u2019s an especially troubling example of how progressive Democrats keep trying to water down penalties for dangerous criminals, with little thought to their victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo basically allow them to walk away from a violent crime in terms of accountability is just absurd policy,\u201d said Greg Totten, a former Ventura County district attorney who heads the state\u2019s DA association.<\/p>\n

\"\"The witness stand of a courtroom at the San Diego Superior Court in downtown San Diego on Aug. 12, 2025. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters.<\/p>\n

Totten noted that defendants already have the right to argue they were abused or trafficked during sentencing hearings.<\/p>\n

Bonta didn\u2019t return an interview request, but she told the Senate Public Safety Committee last month that \u201cAB 910 is a second chance bill, a dignity bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSurvivors should not spend their lives paying for abuse they endured,\u201d\u00a0she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At least 17 organizations, including ACLU California Action and the San Francisco Public Defender\u2019s Office, support the bill, according to the CalMatters\u00a0Digital Democracy database<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Supporters argue hardly anyone convicted of violent crimes actually would qualify under the proposed new law.<\/p>\n

For the few who do, advocates say it would be much cheaper to allow abuse victims to reintegrate into society without their felony convictions being used against them as they look for jobs, housing and other support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf even one person is granted relief under this bill, it will pay for itself,\u201d said Leigh LaChapelle, director of policy and advocacy at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by\u00a0CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up for their newsletters. Susan Bustamante isn\u2019t giving up. The formerly incarcerated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-413884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}