E-mail    By Kimberly Edds

LOS ANGELES -- Marva Wallace's husband beat her

The young woman was bloodied and bruised often during her one-year marriage. Then one horrible night her husband slapped her and forced her to perform a sex act while her 2-year-old daughter watched.

Afterward, Wallace went to the bedroom, got a gun and shot him three times in the back of the head.

She spent the past 17 years in prison for murder, but Wallace, 48 and a grandmother, now is free. She is the first woman to be released under a new California law that gives inmates a chance to prove the outcome of their trial could have been different had evidence of "battered-woman syndrome" been presented.

The 11-month-old law may turn back the clock on hundreds of murder convictions decided before such evidence was required to be admissible at trial. It will give abused women one last legal tool to seek a new trial, have the severity of their offense reduced or even be released with time served, said advocates for battered women.

A few states have enacted laws over the past decade to make it easier for defendants to pursue a strategy of self-defense using battered-woman syndrome, including evidence of prior beatings. Since 1992, California has required that evidence of abuse be permitted in murder trials. But the new law is the first in the nation to allow inmates convicted in trials before the new requirements to demand another hearing.

Wallace was convicted in 1985, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley freed her last month. It is up to prosecutors to decide whether they want to retry her; a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said the case is under review. At a new trial, a defense expert would testify that Wallace was a victim of battered-woman syndrome.

Some medical experts say a steady cycle of violence leaves women feeling helpless, so they often stay in abusive relationships and may eventually see suicide or homicide as the only way out. Advocates are hoping Wallace will not be retried and will be allowed to remain free -- a sign that the fight to free battered women is being reinvigorated.

"We're definitely hoping that she is granted a release so other judges won't feel timid or shy about doing something completely new," said Nausheen Hassan, of the California Women's Law Center.

Skeptics say evidence of battered-woman syndrome was routinely admitted in court before it was mandated a decade ago. They also say the law seems excessive, given the other mechanisms in place to ensure the convictions were just.

"Our chief concern was it was unnecessarily disturbing murder convictions which were properly reached by a jury," said Lawrence Brown, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association. The association initially opposed the bill, but became neutral after securing an amendment that prevents inmates who raised the issue under different legal challenge and lost from trying again.

"We were concerned about giving murderers two bites at the apple," Brown said.

Sue Osthoff, of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, said explaining to juries the effects of abuse is critical to showing a woman acted in self-defense. But critics label the strategy as the "abuse excuse," a blank check that allows women to kill without being held responsible for their actions.

Advocates argue many women who kill their batterers actually endure a tougher legal road and stiffer penalties than men who beat their wives to death in the heat of the moment. Having an expert witness help explain why abused women may feel in imminent danger even when their partner is not actively attacking them can be a turning point for the defense, they said.

"Most people can understand self-defense if I'm attacking you, but they don't understand how someone who after years of terror, shoots them in the back or poisons them, is acting in self-defense," said Kenneth Theisen, a lawyer with the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison.

Nearly 600 women are in California prisons for killing their alleged batterers, but it is unclear how many of those women were convicted prior to 1992. Advocates said at least 100 women would be entitled to seek relief under the new law. Only women convicted of first- or second-degree murder are eligible to seek relief under the new law -- leaving without recourse women who pleaded guilty to manslaughter to avoid a harsher sentence.

Osthoff called the law a "creative" way of navigating the complex avenues California inmates must take to seek release, when clemency and parole are options that have all but been taken from them.

Two weeks before Wallace was freed, she was turned down for parole by Gov. Gray Davis (D). The governor has vowed to let no murderer go free, rejecting all but two of the 144 cases recommended for parole by the Board of Prison Terms.

The push to free battered women from prison was stepped up in the early 1990s. Several governors granted clemency to dozens of convicted killers, including Richard Celeste, then governor of Ohio, who freed 25 women, saying they had not had an opportunity for a fair trial because testimony about abuse had not been presented. But the dozens of clemency petitions sent to Pete Wilson, who was then California's governor, went largely unanswered. Three women out of 34 petitions submitted by battered women were freed -- for reasons other than their abuse.

Initially receiving a swell of public attention, the campaign has lost momentum. Few women have been freed in recent years.

Advocates say they hope the California law can once again jump-start the effort across the nation -- and there are some signs of movement.

New York, which has not freed an alleged battered woman since 1996, adopted a law in July that allows victims of domestic violence serving prison terms for killing or assaulting their abuser to be eligible for work release.