Boulder woman’s 2010 homicide conviction vacated

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — Boulder County District Court on Tuesday vacated the conviction of a woman who fatally stabbed her husband in their Boulder home 14 years ago, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Judge Patrick Butler granted the District Attorney’s Office’s motion to vacate Traci Housman’s 2010 conviction on criminally negligent homicide with a sentence of probation. 

Housman was originally arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder in the death of her husband, John, on Aug. 2, 2009. She pleaded guilty to the criminally negligent homicide charge in February 2010 and was sentenced to probation in April 2010, according to a motion filed by prosecutors. 

A review of the case by the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit found that Housman was the victim of emotional and physical abuse by her husband that escalated to the stabbing. The unit found that if the case had gone to trial, the prosecution wouldn’t have been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Housman didn’t act in self defense, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

“Traci Housman survived not only the trauma of an emotionally and physically abusive relationship, but the horror and guilt of having used lethal force to defend herself from an enraged partner intent on seriously harming her,” said Anne Tapp, executive director of Safehouse Progression Alliance for Non-Violence, in a statement. “The dynamics of intimate partner abuse can be complex and confusing. Survivors know what their abusive partner is capable of – they have survived past assaults. They know when threats are real. But in too many cases, the complexity of a domestic violence survivor’s safety and choices have not been well understood by the courts or legal system.”

District Attorney Michael Dougherty said the decision was “the right thing to do.”

Stan Garnett, who was district attorney at the time of Housman’s conviction, said, “The goal is to reach the right outcome, and I respect the DA’s Office taking this action.”

The family of John Housman objected to vacating the conviction but didn’t make a statement in court, the DA’s Office said.

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