Testimony in Support of HB 989 – Missouri Survivors’ Justice Act

Date: March 26, 2025
To: Representative Parker, Chairman, and Members of the House Judiciary Committee
From: Gwen Smith-Moore, Criminal Justice Policy Manager, Empower Missouri
Re: Support for HB 989

As the largest and oldest anti-poverty non-profit in our state, Empower Missouri is committed to improving the quality of life for all Missouri residents through advocacy. Since our inception, Empower Missouri has focused on the criminal justice system and its impacts. Our Community Justice Coalition consists of community advocates and organizations from across the state who work with those who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. Many coalition members are formerly incarcerated or have currently incarcerated loved ones, and all are connected by a vision for a future without mass incarceration.

We are providing testimony today in support of HB 989. This bill would establish the Missouri Survivors’ Justice Act.  This Act would recognize the unique realities of survivorship by giving judges the discretion to impose fair sentences for domestic abuse survivors convicted of offenses directly linked to their abuse, promoting fairness and ensuring the flexibility needed to address survivors’ unique circumstances. 

System-impacted women have much higher rates of abuse victimization than the general public: an estimated eight in ten incarcerated women have experienced severe abuse as children, and more than seven in ten have experienced serious intimate partner violence as adults. Comparitively, an estimated one in four women in the U.S. is the victim of violence from a partner.  The trauma that survivors experience makes them vulnerable to substance abuse and mental health issues, putting them at further risk of being arrested and prosecuted. 

Versions of the Survivor’s Justice Act already exist in other states, including Oklahoma, which passed the bill in 2024, demonstrating that modernizing our sentencing system is a safe, practical, and widely accepted approach. This smart approach considers important context when making sentencing decisions.

This policy is especially pertinent for our state. Missouri has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the country: around 50% of women in Missouri have been victims of intimate partner violence at some point in their lives. Survivors should be protected, not punished.  Lawmakers have addressed this issue before; in 2007, HB 583 allowed women who were sentenced for killing their abuser before 1991 to become eligible for parole after serving 15 years. However, since then, the scientific understanding around “Battered Spouse Syndrome” has expanded, and the law has not yet caught up to current best practices, leaving victims serving overly lengthy prison sentences simply for trying to survive or defending themselves.

Empower Missouri urges this committee to take action to pass HB 989 into law. Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter.