Listen Live
Hot 100.9 Featured Video
CLOSE

An organization for abused women is fighting for the release of a pregnant Chicago mother currently facing jail time for killing her abusive boyfriend.

Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration is hoping that Naomi Freeman will be released before the holidays. Freeman has been in jail for two months awaiting trial for the death of her boyfriend, John Perry. The pregnant mother of two was leaving her home in July when she was pulled out of her car by Perry and punched 25 times. Freeman’s attorney, Steve Pick, said she got back into her car, made a U-turn, and pinned Perry under the vehicle.

Freeman fled the scene, while Perry was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital. Although Freeman had no prior convictions and prosecutors knew of her abusive past with Perry, she was charged with murder. Prosecutors suggested Freeman could have driven away from her attacker instead of running him over.

But Freeman, who also has Lupus, was “in fear for her life and safety,” DNA Info Chicago reports.

Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration has started the #FreeNaomiFreeman campaign in an effort to raise money for Freeman’s bail. The group is hoping to get a $25,000 grant to help Freeman spend time with her family during Christmas.

DNA Info Chicago reports:

This weekend, the #FreeNaomiFreeman campaign will lead another fundraising push. The money will help Freeman if she doesn’t receive the grant, said Holly Krig, Moms United director of organizing, or extra money raised will go to Chicago Bond to help others pay their bail. Supporters can donate online.

“Someday I will need to explain to my kids why they don’t have their father,” Freeman wrote to Chicago Bond in a letter from jail. “I never meant to hurt him that day, I only acted in fear of my life.

I have to forgive myself, but not for surviving, and I don’t think I should be punished for defending my life.

Freeman is currently in the third trimester of her pregnancy. Her child will be taken to the Department of Child and Family Services within 48 hours if he/she is born in jail.

More groups are also hoping to help Freeman. Holly Krig, Moms United director of organizing, explained to reporters the troubles jailed Black women have in the line of self-defense.

Via DNA Info Chicago:

There are a “number of cases like that where predominantly black women are criminalized for taking actions in self-defense,” Krig said. She has met with Freeman, visiting her in jail and speaking with her family. “She is somebody who has survived a lot of trauma, and the trauma of incarceration is also profound, especially when someone is pregnant.

“That’s something that Naomi herself is still just processing. She had experienced abuse for a number of years with the person involved in this situation.”

If Freeman is released, she will be able to work on her self-defense case.

SOURCE: DNA Info Chicago | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter 

SEE ALSO:

Marilyn Mosby’s Still Got This: A Legal Analyst Defends The Baltimore Prosecutor After Mistrial

In Memoriam: Remembering Those We Lost In 2015

Advocates Rally For Jailed Pregnant Mother Who Killed Abusive Boyfriend  was originally published on newsone.com