By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – A group of Missouri law professors and students wants Governor Holden to reconsider his denial of clemency for eight women who killed abusive boyfriends or husbands.
The group says Holden could, in his final days in office, "right a grievous wrong." At the very least, the Missouri Battered Women's Clemency Coalition hopes Holden might order the women's sentences changed to life with parole.
Holden recently granted clemency to two of the coalition's 11 petitioners, and they are scheduled to be paroled in June. Another won parole for April 2006 without Holden's intervention. But each of the remaining eight cases was denied.
David Cosgrove, Holden's chief legal counsel, said all the cases were carefully considered but that some had no merit.