Opinion ID: 2332358
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Facts Relating to Lynda Ruth Branch

Text: Lynda Ruth Branch has been imprisoned for over 20 years. The following history of Branch's abuse was alleged in her clemency petition and considered by the Governor. Raymond Branch brutally beat and tortured Branch throughout the course of their 11-year marriage. The abuse began on their wedding night. Branch, seven-months pregnant at the time, was sitting in a rocking chair. Raymond Branch hit her so hard that the chair was knocked over and she landed on her stomach. She miscarried a week later. The abuse continued and got progressively worse throughout the marriage. He cut her with a knife and the top of a can. He shot at her. He beat her with a telephone receiver when she tried to call for help. He threw her down the stairs. He cracked her ribs, pulled her hair out, and blackened her eyes so badly that she temporarily lost her eyesight. Knowing that she was afraid of small spaces, he locked her in closets and made her beg to be let out. He also handcuffed her and burned her with cigarettes. He forced her to crawl across the floor and to perform sex acts. He slept with his leg over her to make sure she did not leave the bed when he was sleeping, and he marked her tires and mileage to ensure that she did not leave the house when he was gone. He killed her cat and tied it to her car's rearview mirror. The last week of their marriage, he handcuffed her to the kitchen table, ripped off all of her clothes, put a candle in her vagina and lit it, allowing the hot wax to burn her. Lynda Branch shot Raymond Branch twice the night of May 16, 1986. At trial, she claimed that they had quarreled throughout the day and that Raymond Branch was drinking. She had told him she was leaving him. After she went to sleep on the couch, he woke her up and ordered her to go to the bedroom where she belonged. Later that night, she awoke to him pointing a gun at her that was wrapped in a sheet. She recognized it as a gun because it was from his truck. She claims that he threatened to kill her and her daughter. After that, a struggle ensued and the gun went off. Raymond Branch was shot. Then, when she took the gun out of the sheet, it went off again. The prosecution claimed that she premeditated the killing and then tried to cover it up by moving his body and changing her clothes and the bed sheets. Branch's first conviction was reversed because some evidence of the domestic abuse was excluded. See State v. Branch, 757 S.W.2d 595 (Mo.App.1988). She was convicted again on March 3, 1989, of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years. State v. Branch, 811 S.W.2d 11, 11 (Mo.App.1991). For unexplained reasons, her lawyers in the second trial again did not introduce all of the evidence of the abuse. Branch petitioned the Governor for clemency and on November 24, 2004, Governor Holden commuted her sentence. His commutation stated: After examination of the application and facts relevant thereto, I hereby grant to Lynda Branch a commutation of the above sentence, in the following respect. This commutation eliminates from the sentence the prohibition against probation or parole and makes Lynda Branch eligible for probation or parole consideration. The Board denied her parole. [3] Its order stated that the reasons taken for the action were: Release at this time would depreciate the seriousness of the present offense based upon the following: A: Circumstances surrounding the present offense, B: Use of a weapon, C: Use of excessive force or violence. Branch petitioned this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. She asks that this Court release her from prison. She would like to spend time with her daughter, her grandchildren, and her elderly mother.