SMU Dallas law school clinic rescues women classified as 'criminalized survivors'

One of the tragic ironies that domestic violence victims face is that they sometimes get arrested and even jailed during the very episode wherein they were abused. Case in point is a Texas woman who was date raped, abandoned in the driveway of a DFW home where she was later arrested for DWI and incarcerated. Law students of the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women Clinic were assigned to her case by Dedman Law School professors. The students came to her rescue, produced evidence to law enforcement that their client was the real victim and thus a 'criminalized survivor.' The law students' efforts resulted in the the defendant's record being expunged.

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