The attorney who worked out a plea deal for a woman who is now seeking clemency for killing her abuser says a law clinic’s report is filled with false allegations about him.
A law clinic report offers the governor a legal basis for commuting the life sentence of Sarah Gonzales-McLinn, who is imprisoned for killing her abuser, to the 12 years she has already served.
Gov. Laura Kelly granted clemency to six men and a woman convicted of crimes that involve drugs, sex, and the second-degree murder of a newborn baby. The high-profile clemency request for Sarah Gonzales-McLinn is still under review.
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Roxie Merriman wishes people would focus as much on what was done to Sarah Gonzales-McLinn as they do on how Gonzales-McLinn murdered her rapist.
Mackenzie Clark/Lawrence Times
Advocates who are pushing for the governor to commute the sentence of a woman who killed her rapist in Lawrence 10 years ago will soon hold information sessions for the public.
Dave Ranney says few people disagree with his assertion that Gov. Laura Kelly should grant clemency to Sarah Gonzales-McLinn, who slit her rapist’s throat in 2014. But when he hears opposition, he asks, “Why don’t you tell me what you think was going on in that house?”
Mackenzie Clark/Lawrence Times
The state Department of Corrections’ prisoner review board forwarded a recommendation to Gov. Laura Kelly on the executive clemency application of a Kansas woman convicted in the slaying of a man who allegedly sexually assaulted her for months, state officials said.
Mackenzie Clark/Lawrence Times
Sarah Gonzales-McLinn faces long odds in her bid for clemency based on the rarity in which the Prisoner Review Board recommends approval, the willingness of governors to wield their power, the severity of her crime and opposition from those close to Hal Sasko.
Mackenzie Clark/Lawrence Times
”Even after the abuse, after the violent slaying, the system failed (Sarah Gonzales-McLinn). The judge in her murder trial didn’t allow jurors to hear testimony about her abuse,” Clay Wirestone writes in this Kansas Reflector column.
In the years following a high-profile murder case, the Lawrence Police Department and The Willow Domestic Violence Center joined forces to help victims of human trafficking. The two organizations worked to fine-tune a longstanding relationship with the addition of a victims’ advocate in 2020.
