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Mother Jones Daily Newsletter
August 11, 2022
For the past year, I’ve been talking with a mother in Oklahoma who has one of the saddest, most infuriating stories I’ve ever heard.
Back in 2015, Kerry King was trying to raise her four young kids under exceedingly difficult circumstances. She didn’t have much money, and she’d recently gotten out of a marriage with a man who abused her. She was dating a new man who soon became abusive too.
One night, she walked into her 4-year-old daughter’s bedroom and found him with his hands around her little neck. Kerry tried to stop him, even punching him in the face, but he slammed her head against a wall. When he started to beat her daughter with a belt, she threw her body over the girl, taking the lashes on her own back.
But when the police came, they didn’t view Kerry as a victim. No—they actually blamed her, even though they knew her boyfriend was the one who'd committed the violence. A judge threw her in prison for 30 years. Twelve years longer than her boyfriend. How is that possible?
In January and April, I flew down to Oklahoma to investigate. It turns out, Kerry is one of many mothers who have been ripped apart from their children under similar circumstances, not just in Oklahoma, but around the country. This week, Mother Jones published a documentary and feature article diving into some of these cases and the obscure, sexist laws behind them. “I am not guilty,” Kerry told me. “I just wanna go home. I wanna see my kids so bad.” In Oklahoma, filmmaker Mark Helenowski and I met three of Kerry’s kids, who were sent by the state to live with her formerly abusive ex-husband after she went to prison.
These are hard stories to read—they’re hard stories to report too.
Lilah, the daughter who was beaten all those years ago, is still confused about why her mom was punished so harshly. “I just really miss her,” she told us. “I just want to talk to her.” She told us she hopes someone will read about their family’s story and take action—change the law, shorten her mom’s sentence. I hope so too.
—Samantha Michaels
She never hurt her kids. So why is a mother serving more time than the man who abused her daughter?
Failure-to-protect laws are incarcerating women all over the country—for other people's violence.
STORY BY SAMANTHA MICHAELS, VIDEO BY MARK HELENOWSKI
Trending
Trump, who once said “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth?” takes the Fifth
BY ABIGAIL WEINBERG
How the Inflation Reduction Act affects food and agriculture
BY TOM PHILPOTT
Medical boards that can strip abortion providers of licenses are stacked with Republican donors
BY MADISON PAULY
An obscure law is sending Oklahoma mothers to prison in droves. We reviewed 1.5 million cases to learn more.
BY RYAN LITTLE
Women’s prisons are filled with domestic violence survivors. A new type of law could help them get out.
It passed in New York, and now other states may follow.
BY SAMANTHA MICHAELS
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