For a land use attorney based in California’s Bay Area, Nadia Costa has spent an inordinate amount of time knocking on doors in south central Los Angeles. Costa, counsel at Bingham McCutchen, has devoted thousands of hours over the past six-and-a-half years reconstructing a long and harrowing story of abuse to try and win her client’s freedom.
The woman at the center of the abuse, Deborah Peagler, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1983 on charges that she had hired two gang members to kill her pimp and one-time boyfriend, who she said had repeatedly assaulted and raped her. Peagler, who waited in a car while the gang members strangled and beat the man to death in an Inglewood city park, was sentenced to 25 years to life.
Peagler’s case may have ended there if not for a California law passed in 2002 that allowed victims of domestic violence convicted of a crimewhere the abuse was related to the crimeto file a habeas petition if the abuse was never presented during the original trial. Peagler’s case was referred to Bingham by the California Habeas Project, which to date has helped 19 domestic violence victims serving life sentences in the state get released from prison.
