Self-Defense Can’t Save Women From a Sexist Criminal Justice System
The nearly identical cases of Brittany Smith and Rose Parker show how the justice system penalizes abuse victims for surviving
In 1986, Rose Parker shot her abuser to save her brother’s life. The man she shot, Art Bago, had been horrifically abusive during their relationship, making Parker fear for her life and, at one point, raping her in front of her 19-month-old son. She became pregnant after the rape and hid in her brother’s house. Bago came to the house with two guns and an Uzi and held both the pregnant Parker and her son captive for days, beating her throughout. When Parker’s brother stormed the house, hoping to rescue Rose, Bago picked up the Uzi and headed out to murder him. Parker grabbed a gun that Bago had left unattended and shot him in the back.
“I was so happy when the police came,” Parker told me over the phone, more than 30 years later. “I ran out there. I told them everything because I felt safe. Then they put me in prison.”
Rose Parker pleaded self-defense for killing Art Bago, but her plea was rejected; the judge ruled that since she’d shot Bago in the back, he could not have been charging her. She tried citing the previous abuse, only to find herself cast as a vengeful woman…
