Surviving Domestic Violence Is Not a Crime—So Why Did Nicole Receive a Life Sentence?

Matthew Cavedon

Terrified that her boyfriend, Ronnie, was about to kill her or their nine-month-old son, Romello, 18-year-old Nicole Boynton did the only thing she could think of: she grabbed a steak knife and pushed it into his chest. He died. She was charged with murder, convicted by a jury, and sentenced to life in prison for the killing. There she remained for a quarter century—before becoming the first person released under Georgia’s new second look law.

The 19th tells Nicole’s remarkable story. One day in 1999, she was breastfeeding Romello when Ronnie “snatched” the baby “and threw him against the wall.” Ronnie began punching Nicole but was soon interrupted by concerned neighbors knocking on the door. When Ronnie returned, he began chasing Nicole around their kitchen. She retrieved a knife, hoping that would deter him, and she urged him to stop. Instead, Ronnie grabbed her arm and twisted the knife toward her. Nicole swung her arm to break free, and Ronnie fell. The knife had stabbed him in the heart. He died on the spot.

After the police arrived, Nicole says they interrogated her, having already decided to charge her. She was indicted for felony murder and aggravated assault. She says she was never told about the prosecution’s plea offer, which would have led to her serving 15 years in prison. Nicole was convicted and given a life sentence.

Nicole is now a free woman, thanks to a change in the law that let a judge release her after recognizing that she “should have never been in prison.” Last year, Georgia enacted the Survivor Justice Act, a “second look” law. The law is the latest in a line of reforms across the country meant to protect survivors of domestic violence from being convicted for defending themselves and their loved ones. Historically, a defendant could raise self-defense against a criminal charge only if she faced an “imminent” threat of injury or death at the time she used force. 

For instance, in one 1980s case, a woman fatally shot her husband. Though he had been beating her for a decade—breaking bones and teeth and leaving her (in the words of an appellate court) “psychologically similar to hostage and prisoner of war cases”—the trial court told the jury to convict her unless she faced “immediate” danger. In 1985, her conviction was reversed as part of a nationwide shift toward recognizing the unique characteristics of “battered person” situations.

The new Georgia law, like similar measures, builds on this progress by reducing sentencing ranges for defendants convicted of offenses in which abuse is “a significant contributing factor” and allowing judges to apply these rules retroactively (which is how Nicole was able to benefit from it).

Nicole is not the only person who will benefit from second look laws focusing on domestic violence, which have also been enacted in recent years in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Oklahoma. Legislation has also been proposed in Massachusetts, Missouri, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Oregon, and narrowly failed to pass last autumn in California (though that state does provide limited relief already). Men can secure early release using second-look measures, too: because of New York’s law, Mulumba Kazingo won his liberty five years early after killing his abusive father to protect his mother.

The full extent of injustice against survivors is unclear, as there are no official statistics counting how many people are in prison for using self-defense against abuse. But Nicole’s story is not unique. A 2020 survey by The Appeal found that as many as 30 percent of women and girls convicted of homicide offenses may have been defending themselves or others from abuse. A case similar to Nicole’s involved Marissa Alexander, who was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison after firing a gunshot to ward off her ex-husband, then released in 2015. In the absence of a second look law in Marissa’s home state of Florida, she had to rely on public outcry to win freedom.

In states with second-look laws, survivors no longer have to. Criminologist Breea Willingham has observed that the system often treats “survival as criminal behavior.” Nicole’s freedom is proof that this is finally starting to change.