Pardon for Marisela Andrade (CDCR#WA7304, A#074-816-783)

Pardon for Marisela Andrade (CDCR#WA7304, A#074-816-783)

Started
October 5, 2021
Signatures: 14,019Next Goal: 15,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP)

To: Governor Gavin Newsom

ATTN: Office of Legal Affairs, Pardons

State Capitol, Suite 1173

Sacramento, CA   95814

We are asking you, Gov. Newsom, to issue a pardon to Ms. Marisela Andrade (CDCR#WA7304, A#074-816-783), currently in ICE detention in Aurora, CO.  Marisela was incarcerated at CCWF in Chowchilla, CA in 2008 on a Life Without Parole (LWOP) sentence. She received a commutation of her LWOP sentence in 2018  to 15 to life by then Governor Brown. She was approved for parole on March 5, 2021. On Dec. 3, 2021, instead of release back to her family and community, CDCR transferred Marisela directly to ICE. She was then sent to Colorado and now is fighting deportation proceedings.

Marisela Andrade is a 44 year old immigrant mother, and a survivor of sexual trafficking and domestic violence by her husband. Marisela  worked hard to earn first a commutation and then her parole. She should NOT be doubly punished by being handed over to ICE for deportation to Mexico . She has served her time and deserves the right to come home to her family and community here in California. 

At 15 Marisela fell in love with a man who seemed to offer the safety of love. They married when Marisela turned 18.  As Marisela wrote, “The day of my wedding the domestic violence began. I asked him why things changed, and he said because I was already his wife. He drank a lot of alcohol, and the only thing I could do was obey him and please him in all ways because I was so afraid of him. I had already lost a baby because he had beaten me so terribly, but I never reported him to the police because he always threatened to take my daughters from me.”

Not long after their wedding, her husband brought Marisela across the border to the US where the severe abuse and trafficking continued. “I was very ignorant, so I stayed silent without sharing anything about what was going on and enduring all the violence and abuse until 2008 when the crime happened.” Feeling she had no way out of the repeated physical abuse, rape and being trafficked to men all over the  state, Marisela asked an acquaintance to help her stop the abuse. She did not  intend for her husband to be killed.

Marisela dedicated her years in prison to rehabilitation and to healing herself and other survivors  from trauma.  She is deeply  remorseful for having taken another person’s life and for the fact that her children grew up without a father. She wrote, “I felt trapped, desperate, good for nothing. I felt there was no way out…..Back then I didn’t know how to deal with my emotions or problems with my husband...I am very sorry for all the damage that I caused. Now I want to help other people so that they might know that the help is out there for them and that they don’t have to commit a crime to get it. Today I know this. I don't have to be afraid and if I need any kind of help I have numbers to call. I have my support today, I value human life and every day I work to be a better person."

If deported to Mexico, Marisela faces certain violence and possible death at the hands of her husband's family and members of his human- and narco-trafficking network. Marisela’s mother, living in Mexico, has received threatening phone calls about Marisela. 

When freed, Marisela intends to continue her work to support survivors of trafficking and abuse. We urge you, Gov. Newsom, to recognize Ms. Andrade’s importance to her family and community and to stop this double punishment by ICE. Pardon Ms. Andrade. Allow her to come home to her family.

Call or EMAIL the Governor:

To Email Gov. Newsom, click here to go to website: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/ select “Have comment.” Fill in the form, and under “Please choose a subject” select “Clemency/Pardon”

Call: Gov. Newsom (916) 445-2841

 

 

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Signatures: 14,019Next Goal: 15,000
Support now
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