Doc Film Viewers Hiss at Onscreen DA, Shown as Villain in Abused Woman's 26-Year Murder Sentence
Viewers at the premiere of Crime after Crime hissed when the Los Angeles County District Attorney appeared onscreen at the Sundance Film Festival this week.
That’s because Steve Cooley is portrayed as the villain in the story of an abused woman who served 26 years in prison for the murder of her estranged boyfriend, reports the Los Angeles Times’ L.A. Now blog.
As the film tells the story, Deborah Peagler might have served only six years if DA Cooley had disclosed an internal memo that concluded a key witness committed perjury and noted that the state never intended to seek the death penalty. Meanwhile, Peagler pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1983 to avoid the death penalty in the 1982 slaying of Oliver Wilson in a South Los Angeles park.
She admits that she lured him there, but says she expected the two men who beat and strangled him to death only to scare him into better behavior. Days earlier, Wilson had been arrested for allegedly assaulting her with a gun. However, evidence that she had been abused wasn’t considered at the time.
California in 2002 became the first state in the country to enact a law that allowed murder convictions to be reconsidered if a woman could show abuse led to the slaying. But even though Wilson’s own siblings supported her release, Cooley refused to cooperate with her lawyers’ efforts to win Peagler’s freedom.
In 2009, she was finally freed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger because she was dying of lung cancer.
Sandi Gibbons, who is a spokeswoman for Cooley, says he doesn’t plan to see the film and did nothing wrong.
“Deborah Peagler,” said Gibbons, “intentionally orchestrated the murder-for-hire of her estranged boyfriend. She lured him to the spot where he was killed. She witnessed the murder and drove the killers away. She profited by receiving money from the victim’s insurance.”
Multiple courts denied Peagler’s post-conviction appeals, Gibbons continued. “Her claims have been discredited over and over again.”
