Traci Housman was arrested in 2009 and convicted in 2010 for stabbing her husband in their home. At the time, Housman accepted a plea offer of criminally negligent homicide and received a probation sentence. On Tuesday, the Boulder County court system vacated her murder conviction and renamed it self-defense.
Housman’s case was brought to the attention of the Conviction Integrity Unit, or CIU, by the lead detective on the case. The CIU team reviewed the case file. The team also learned that Housman had been a victim of domestic abuse.
The CIU is part of the District Attorney’s Office and was established by District Attorney Michael Dougherty to investigate claims of wrongful convictions.
“When a victim of coercive, controlling violence uses defensive violence to survive, it requires the criminal justice system to take a much deeper look at the entirety of the relationship that victim has with their abuser. That is exactly what the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office did here. I fully support the decision of the District Attorney’s Office to request vacatur of Ms. Housman’s conviction. I applaud the extraordinary work that the Conviction Integrity Unit performed in reaching this brave and just conclusion,” said District Attorney Anne Kelly of the Twelfth Judicial District who served in the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office and established the Domestic Violence Acute Response Team.
Housman shared that the incident that resulted in her husband’s death happened after a domestic abuse incident. The information provided was found to be consistent with the physical damage in the home, the photographs of the crime scene and Housman’s injuries, according to the CIU team.
“The additional information led to the conclusion that Ms. Housman was the victim in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with Mr. Housman that escalated to the tragic incident on August 2, 2009,” according to a news release from the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office.
The CIU team also determined that if Housman had presented the information at her trial, the prosecution would have been unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she did not act in self-defense, according to the news release.
“The overarching goal of the District Attorney’s Office is to seek justice. I want to acknowledge the original lead detective, Chuck Heidel, for bringing this case to our attention. I appreciate the hard work of our Conviction Integrity Unit as well as the partners who helped with this review. Based on that thorough analysis, as well as the new information provided by Ms. Housman, it is a valid claim of self-defense. A great deal of work and analysis led to this decision; it is the right thing to do,” Dougherty said.
