Free Deborah Peagler from Wrongful Imprisonment

Dear District Attorney Cooley,

We the undersigned have been made aware of the extraordinary circumstances regarding Deborah Peagler, a woman who was prosecuted in Los Angeles County some 25 years ago and has been imprisoned ever since. We write to strongly urge that you do all you can to secure her release from a very unjust imprisonment.

In 2005, your office wrote a letter stating that Ms. Peagler, an inmate at the Central California Womens Facility, should be released from prison in the interest of justice.  After reviewing her case file and other more recent documentation supplied by her counsel, your office determined in writing that her legal team had presented significant issues and evidence which were unknown or unavailable at the time of trial.

This evidence demonstrated that a pimp/drug dealer had ensnared Deborah Peagler when she was just 15 years old, and that he severely and systematically abused her physically and emotionally during the years that followed. Thirteen credible witnesses including the sister and friends of the abuser, and the former key witness for the prosecution have corroborated the facts of the abuse Ms. Peagler suffered. Three experts specializing in domestic violence, trauma and torture have evaluated Ms. Peagler and concluded that her limited involvement in the death of her abuser directly resulted from battering and its effects.

Ms. Peagler has been incarcerated for 25 years. When friends of her mother killed her batterer in 1982 the District Attorney sought the death penalty against Ms. Peagler. In order to save her life, Ms. Peagler pled to a life sentence.

Since then Deborah Peagler has been a model prisoner. She has earned two associate degrees behind bars and ministers the gospel to fellow inmates. Her spirit will not be diminished -- not by years of horrifying torture at the hands of her abuser, nor by over two decades of incarceration.

In your 2005 letter, your office specifically recommended that Ms. Peagler and her legal team file a request to release her from prison and you stated that your office would support her release. In 2007, a three-judge panel at the California Court of Appeal unanimously found good cause to grant her petition and returned the case to the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles under an order to show cause why she should not be released.

Mr. Cooley, this case is at a crossroads. We ask you to make good on your promise to correct this grave injustice.