Progress is fragile, domestic abuse advocate says

Abuse victims are more likely to get a fair trial today than they were when Sheila Schertz was sentenced in the 1980s, but those victims still face obstacles, one University of Iowa professor said.

Schertz was sentenced to life in prison after she and a group of men kidnapped one victim and murdered another victim in 1982. But in the final days of Chet Culver's governorship earlier this month, the governor commuted Schertz's sentence, making her eligible for parole.

That commutation might not have been possible without the help of two University of Iowa law students. Allison McCarthy and Amy Halbur worked with Schertz and discovered her history of physical abuse made her more vulnerable to committing the 1982 crime. Schertz feared for her safety if she didn't follow orders from the men who were involved with the kidnapping and murder.

The students wrote a letter to the Iowa Parole Board, explaining the impact of abuse in Schertz's case. Last March, the board voted unanimously to recommend the governor commute Schertz's sentence. The governor accepted that recommendation this year so Schertz is now eligible for parole. Clarence Key, director of the Iowa Parole Board, said no date has been set for Schertz's next parole hearing.

That's something UI law instructor Linda McGuire said doesn't happen often enough. McGuire works with students like McCarthy and Halbur as part of the Skylark Project, an effort by the UI College of Law and Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence to help abused women in prison have their sentences reviewed.

McGuire could only recall one other case like Schertz's in Iowa. Near the end of his tenure as governor, Tom Vilsack commuted the sentence of Dixie Shanahan, who was convicted of killing her abusive husband.

The law school's associate dean of civic engagement said there are a number of reasons why Iowa governors have lightened sentences for so few abused women.

“There are not many advocacy projects like this so most of the prisoners are on their own to put their cases together,” she said in a phone interview. “The other thing is we do have a very slow parole board process. I think they probably have hundreds of cases before them right now.”

But judges and juries are more likely to take domestic abuse into consideration today.

‘Defense lawyers are much better at being able to ask about this and pay attention to it. Judges are more careful. Everybody's more aware of these issues so it's more likely women will get a fair hearing of their case.”

Still, progress in combating domestic abuse is fragile, McGuire said, especially given moves to slash the state budget this year.

“I'm hopeful that women are able not to be trapped in these situations,” she said. “Having said that, it takes money to run programs for these women and when programs start gettting cut we start to worry again.”