A Detroit woman who killed her abusive husband in self-defense has been released from prison after serving 20 months. Tina Talbot shot Milosz Szczepanowicz to death in September 2018 after suffering years of physical and sexual violence at his hands but was freed after being granted parole following the serving of her minimum sentence.
- Talbot was jailed for up to 15 years in February 2019. The 53-year-old admitted to manslaughter at a trial and was sent to the Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Washtenaw County, Michigan. However, it wasn’t long before a campaign to free her began, especially given the extent of the abuse Talbot had experienced for nearly two decades.
- She was badly beaten just before Szczepanowicz’s death. In the days before Talbot killed her husband, he beat her so badly that she was covered in bruises and was injured so bad that she had to seek medical treatment. During her initial court appearances, she even had her arm wrapped in bandages.
- A parole board determined she posed no threat to society. After interviewing Talbot at length, the parole board decided that “she wasn’t going to be a danger to society if released.” Talbot asked for clemency and said her release would allow her to care for her young autistic son. While Szczepanowicz’s family appealed the decision to free Talbot, according to the Detroit News, but the appeal was unsuccessful.
- Many believed that Talbot’s actions were justified. As her attorney Jerome Sabotta told the court in April 2019, “He breaks her arm, beats her with a chair. The next two days he rapes her, beats and does all kinds of things.” He went on to add that Talbot had to kill her husband “to save herself and her 7-year-old son.”
- Talbot was released from prison on Tuesday, November 17. She was greeted by her son at the prison gates. Hopefully she can get the counseling she will need to get through the trauma she’s experienced and is able to build a new safer, happier life with her son.
