Attorney London Sneden has written When Surviving Looks Like a Crime: Reactive Abuse, Recorded "Evidence," and the Women Serving Texas Prison Sentences for Fighting Back, an article about a pattern she sees in file after file: a woman who endured years of abuse, reacted once, and was convicted on the strength of a recording her abuser made of that moment. The pattern has a name now, reactive abuse, and this year it went from a term in domestic-violence research to a national conversation.
Read the full article online or download it as a PDF (11 pages).
The article is written for women serving Texas sentences for conduct that grew out of their own abuse, for the families trying to help them, and for anyone trying to understand how a victim ends up as a defendant. It explains what the research shows, why the term is suddenly everywhere, how Texas law treats a victim who reacted, and, most importantly, what can still be done after a conviction.
"The evidence that convicted her was, in a very real sense, curated by the man who abused her. He knew what she looked like at her breaking point because he had spent years engineering it. When it mattered, he was calm, composed, and believable. She was frantic, loud, and 'crazy.' One of them looked like a victim that day. It was not her."
What the Article Covers
- What "reactive abuse" actually means, and why many advocates prefer "reactive defense" or "violent resistance."
- The "provoke, record, stay calm" tactic, and what the research on DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender) says about how well it works on police, judges, and juries.
- Why everyone is suddenly talking about this: the Taylor Frankie Paul recording, the Depp-Heard trial, and the Gabby Petito traffic stop.
- The numbers: what federal and state data show about how many incarcerated women are survivors of abuse.
- How Texas law turns a reacting victim into a felon: family violence enhancements, the deferred adjudication trap, strangulation and deadly weapon charges, and why self-defense is strong on paper but fragile in these cases.
- The evidence that wins these cases (family violence history, expert testimony on the psychology of abuse under Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.36), and what happens when a trial lawyer never offers it.
- Sudden passion, and the difference between life and twenty years.
- What can still be done after the conviction: direct appeal, the Article 11.07 writ, the changed-science writ under article 11.073, clemency, and the federal one-year clock too few families hear about.
- What a family can do right now to preserve the pattern before it disappears.
The article is candid about the odds. Most post-conviction applications are denied, and nothing in it is a promise. It is specific about what separates the applications that succeed: evidence, developed early and thoroughly.
"The jury deliberated on the recording because the recording was all anyone gave them. When that happens, the conviction may not just be tragic. It may be constitutionally infirm, and that is where my work begins."
About the Author
London Sneden is a Texas post-conviction attorney at Daher Law Group who handles direct appeals, Article 11.07 writs of habeas corpus, and federal habeas filings, working alongside attorney Matt Daher on the firm's Texas cases. She earned her Juris Doctorate from The George Washington University Law School and is licensed in Texas, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
If someone you love is serving a Texas sentence for conduct that grew out of the abuse she suffered, contact Daher Law Group for a consultation.