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This story was originally published by The 19th.

Keshia Golden, a Black mother from the West Side of Chicago, turned down a plea deal months ago even though it put her at risk of at least 20 years in prison.

In October 2022, Golden was eight months pregnant and had just celebrated her baby shower. She says her boyfriend, Calvin Sidney, attacked her in the kitchen, slamming her head into the counter — her attorneys say that kind of violence was typical of their relationship, and resulted in dozens of police calls and multiple arrests. One of her public defenders said the fight moved into another room, and that’s when Golden defended herself. “I just wanted him to stop,” Golden told the Chicago Sun-Times, reflecting on the moment when she said she grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Sidney in the leg. The blade hit his femoral artery, and he died in a hospital. Golden was charged with first-degree murder shortly after.

Prosecutors offered her a chance to plead guilty to second-degree murder, also a felony, and avoid prison time by agreeing to probation for two years. But the cost was still too high.

With a felony on her record in Illinois, Golden would lose opportunities to get back on her feet as a survivor of domestic abuse. She would be ineligible for public housing, lose access to child care funds and be barred from working in health care, her chosen field. She wouldn’t be eligible for student loans to help her start another career. All this would hurt her ability to provide for her 3-year-old daughter, Ky’liyah, whose baby shower she had been celebrating.

Golden’s trial is scheduled to begin Monday, and as a Black woman charged with killing her abuser the odds are stacked against her. A plea deal would risk her livelihood, but a trial could result in her being separated from her child for decades. Organizers are rallying for prosecutors to drop all charges instead of what they see as a decision to punish a Black mother for trying to save her own life. The people demanding her freedom say if she had not acted, her life — and that of her daughter — would be on the line instead.

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“What is a woman’s right to defend herself against her abuser? And why is her abuser entitled to harm her? Why have we normalized that?” asked Holly Krig, director of organizing at Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, who has been advocating on Golden’s behalf.

Leigh Goodmark runs the Gender, Prison and Trauma Clinic at the University of Maryland’s law........

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