On March 2, 2020, Tracy McCarter’s life – her nursing career, her degree, her motherly duties – was interrupted forever when her drunk, angry, estranged husband showed up at her doorstep.
And after that horrifying day, she may face 25 years to life in prison. How?
It wasn’t the first time McCarter’s ex-husband choked and abused her. But this time, she armed herself with a knife. They struggled – then, he was dying. Distraught, she called for help.
Instead of getting help, McCarter was charged with second-degree murder, and incarcerated in Rikers Island just as COVID-19 ripped through jails nationwide.
So, when Manhattan’s first Black District Attorney Alvin Bragg spoke about the injustice of McCarter’s case during his campaign, it offered some hope. But now that he’s there, advocates fear he’s abandoned her.
Meanwhile, McCarter lost her job, lives with an ankle monitor, and needs PTSD treatment. Where is her help?
40% of Black women experience domestic violence. In New York, 66% of women incarcerated for killing someone they know were abused by that person. And their fates are at the hands of just a few people in power.
This system criminalized McCarter for surviving violence. And whether Bragg can drop the charges or not, we have a longer fight ahead of us: building a world where victims of violence are no longer criminalized and punished for surviving.