Tondalo Hall in 2015. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections) 
 
 In 2004, Tondalo Hall was 20 years old with three kids, no degree and an abusive boyfriend. 
 
 He regularly choked her, punched her, threw objects at her and barraged her with verbal abuse, according to testimony in court documents. He kept her from her family and friends, even tried to stop her from showing affection to her kids. Whenever it seemed like she might bolt, he threatened to take her children — a son from a previous relationship, and two kids with him — and never allow her to see them again. 
 
 When he seemed to turn his ire on their children, Hall worried inwardly, but outwardly did nothing. She questioned him about a bruise on her son’s head, the sound of her daughter screaming from another room, and he explained the concerns away. Finally, when her 20-month-old son’s leg started to swell suspiciously, she brought her kids to the hospital. The young boy had a fractured femur and 12 fractured ribs; her newborn daughter also had a fractured femur, seven fractured ribs and a fractured toe. 
 
 Not long after that hospital visit in late 2004, Hall and her boyfriend, Robert Braxton Jr., were arrested and charged in the abuse of their children. Braxton pleaded guilty to hurting the infant girl and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, eight of which were suspended. He was released in 2006, according to BuzzFeed News, which profiled Hall last fall. 
 
 Hall, who took a so-called “blind plea deal” — a deal without knowing what her sentence would be — in Oklahoma County District Court, is a third of the way through a 30-year sentence for permitting child abuse. 
 
 She appealed, and lost. She asked the judge for a modified sentence, and was denied. Her best chance of release was a request for commutation, which would have ended her sentence early without absolving her of a crime. 
 
 On Wednesday, that request was denied, too. 
 
 “The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had the responsibility to make things right and they failed with today’s decision,” Shaunna Thomas, executive director of the group UltraViolet, which has advocated on Hall’s behalf, told BuzzFeed. UltraViolet is one of several activist groups to take up Hall’s cause. 
 
 But the board, which recommends applications for commutation to the governor, seemed “incredulous” that Hall hadn’t taken more action as it questioned her, BuzzFeed reported. 
 
 That sentiment echoed remarks from Hall’s sentencing 11 years ago, when prosecutor Angela Marsee remarked that Hall seemed to be “choosing herself and her co-defendant over her kids,” in Marsee’s words. 
 
 When investigators first came to Hall’s apartment, she told them that she didn’t know how her children had been hurt. Then Hall said it was her fault — she threw her son on the bed while playing, she said. 
 
 “I made up the story, I lied,” Hall acknowledged at Braxton’s trial. 
 
 “Why were you lying to this detective?” Marsee wanted to know. 
 
 “I didn’t know what to say,” Hall replied. “I had never been questioned before.” 
 
 Though Hall immediately pleaded guilty, Braxton’s case went to trial. There, Hall was a key witness in the case against her boyfriend, but she was unable to provide a firsthand account of his abuse of the children. The case against Braxton began to “fall part,” as Marsee, who was also the prosecutor in his case, put it at Hall’s sentencing, and Braxton was offered a plea deal that released him after two years. 
 
 “He definitely should have received a more significant sentence, but because of her minimizing and continuing to protect herself and protect him, that had a real impact on what we were able to do with him in the jury trial,” Marsee said, according to court records. 
 
 Ray Elliot, Hall’s sentencing judge, seemed to agree. 
 
 “There would be certain questions that would be asked of her where she would look over at the defendant and make direct eye contact with him prior to taking a moment or two to respond,” he said at the sentencing. “That tells me something, based on my years of experience. Was she scared of him? Probably. But again, even weighing that factor into the equation, I’m of the opinion she was less than candid.” 
 
 But Hall and her lawyers say she was ashamed, and scared. According to her commutation application, Braxton continued to intimidate Hall even as his case went to trial. 
 
 “He repeatedly threatened me during the court proceedings,” she wrote. “… He would tell me that I would spend the rest of my life in prison and he would be out with our children.” 
 
 In a way, he was right. Though her children aren’t living with Braxton, he was released while she remained imprisoned. 
 
 “Rather than being protected by the State I was prosecuted,” Hall wrote in her application for commutation. 
 
 Activist groups like UltraViolet and the Monument Quilt, a organization that tells the stories of abuse survivors, say that the reasoning used in Hall’s sentencing underscores the problems faced by victims: they are blamed for not confronting their abusers. According to the Domestic Abuse Project, battered women often suffer from depression, low self-esteem and feelings of paralysis. Fear of their partner — and fear of a future without him — can make them reluctant to leave their abuser or testify against him in court. 
 
 Lorraine M. Bittner, legal director of the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a similar case that it’s unreasonable for prosecutors to base their cases on victims’ testimony. 
 
 “If you leave it up to the victim, then all the pressure is on her,” she said. “We don’t want to go back to that. You’re turning to the most vulnerable person to set policy for law enforcement.” 
 
 In the years since her sentencing, Hall says she has done her best to become a better mother. She writes letters to her children, learned of bike rides and birthday parties. After dropping out of school in 10th grade, she’s finally earned her GED. She’s held a steady job at Mabel Basset Correctional Facility, where she is serving out her sentence. And she’s taken class after class on pain management and better parenting: “Certificate in Positive Outlook,” “Faith and Character Community Program,” “Anger Control,” a course in “Purpose Driven Life.” 
 
 “I had a duty to protect my children and I failed,” she wrote in her application. But now, she says, she’s equipped to deal with the problems that overwhelmed her a decade ago. 
 
 “I now recognize the warning signs of domestic violence as well as the avenues available to those involved in abusive relationships. If I could go back in time, I would have contacted the Oklahoma City YWCA for help in creating a safety plan to securely remove my family from Robert’s violence,” she wrote in her application. “… Despite my failures, I did not physically abuse my children. I was an active parent and a proud mother. I loved and cared for my children and I would appreciate the opportunity to watch them grow up.” 
 
 Hall’s sentence ends in 2034, when she will be 50 and her children fully grown adults, according to the Oklahoman. She isn’t eligible for parole until she serves 85 percent of her sentence — not for another 15 years. 
 
 H/T BuzzFeed ||||| OKLAHOMA CITY — Tondalo Hall, a battered woman whose lengthy prison term in a child abuse case has outraged women's rights advocates, had her plea for clemency denied on Wednesday. 
 
 The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 5-0 against her application for a commuted sentence. Hall, who was not accused of hurting her children but only of failing to prevent her boyfriend from abusing them, is set to remain behind bars until at least 2030, when she becomes eligible for parole. 
 
 Hall's abusive boyfriend, who admitted to breaking the ribs and femur of their 3-month-old daughter, was sentenced to only two years and was released from jail in 2006. 
 
 "The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had the responsibility to make things right and they failed with today's decision," said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, a national advocacy group that garnered 70,000 signatures in a petition demanding the board set Hall free. 
 
 A spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin's office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening. Spokesman Alex Weintz told BuzzFeed News previously that Fallin cannot grant prisoners clemency without a recommendation from the parole board. "You can't skip the intermediate step," he said. The governor does have influence on the board, however, as she appoints three of its five members. 
 
 Board members provided no explanation for their decision, but during a tense hearing, in which Hall appeared via video-conference, Vice Chair Patricia High grilled the 31-year-old woman about what she knew about her children's injuries, and when. 
 
 Hall spent most of the hearing choking back tears. "I know I failed as a mother, and I'm just asking for a second chance," she said. 
 
 A BuzzFeed News investigation last year found that Hall was one of at least 28 mothers in 11 states who had been sentenced to 10 or more years in prison for failing to protect their children from abusers — despite evidence the mothers themselves had been abused. 
 
 Hall has alleged both in and out of court that she had been a victim of violent attacks by Braxton — Hall says that he had choked and punched her. 
 
 Braxton was charged with child abuse and Hall was charged with failing to protect her children from him. 
 
 Hall pled guilty, but Braxton did not, and went to trial. Hall testified at his trial, but frustrated prosecutors because she did not provide many details on witness stand about how he had abused her children. Fearful that without her testimony, they would lose the case prosecutors cut a deal with Braxton in which he pled guilty but was released from jail. 
 
 When it came time for Hall to be sentenced, the judge who presided over both trials faulted her for being "less than candid" about his alleged crimes, although also noted that she seemed to be afraid of him. Still, he sentenced her to 30 years. 
 
 The case stemmed from a 2004 incident, in which Hall took her 20-month-old son to the hospital and doctors found he had broken ribs and a broken femur, and then discovered that her 3-month-old daughter had similar injuries. 
 
 At the hearing Wednesday, High seemed incredulous that Hall had not taken more action given how seriously her children were hurt. 
 
 High, the board's vice chair, pointed out that the femur is "the biggest bone in the body." "She never acted like that leg bothered her when you would change her?" High asked. 
 
 "She cried, but I didn't — I thought it was because she needed to be changed or fed, you know," Hall replied. 
 
 "So as soon as you were finished with changing her or feeding her, she just calmed right back down?" 
 
 "Um — yes ma'am." 
 
 High asked Hall if the day of the hospital visit was the first time she noticed her children had been hurt. No, Hall replied, adding that Braxton, her then boyfriend, "was already hitting on me" and their son. 
 
 Only one other person testified at the hearing, Marsha Travis, the chaplain at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, where Hall has been in prison. She urged board members to commute Hall's sentence. 
 
 "I have heard the remorse in her voice," she said. 
 
 Following that plea, board members voted one by one against letting Hall out. 
 
 Hall's sentence is up in 2034. She is not eligible for parole until 2030. ||||| Arlena Lindley’s boyfriend Alonzo Turner beat her for months and murdered her child — so why was she sent to prison for 45 years? A BuzzFeed News investigation. 
 
 Photograph by Melanie Buford for The Dallas Morning News Photographs of Titches Lindley sitting above his bed at the home of his father, William Wade, in Dallas. 
 
 BuzzFeed News 
 
 Dallas County Sheriff's Department From left: Arlena Lindley and Alonzo Turner. 
 
 Photograph by Wil Chandler for BuzzFeed Photographs of Aubriana Coke in the home of her grandmother in Monticello, Arkansas. 
 
 Courtesy of Victoria Pedraza Victoria Pedraza and her daughter. Victoria served in the National Guard. 
 
 Arkansas Department of Correction 
 
 Photograph by Wil Chandler for BuzzFeed 
 
 BuzzFeed Judge Kenneth Watson. 
 
 Courtesy of Victoria Phanthtaranth Victoria Phanthtaranth and her daughter, Alexis. 
 
 Watson told BuzzFeed News that he thought about how Phanthtaranth had suffered from repeated physical and sexual abuse growing up in foster homes. And she had already been behind bars more than two years for Alexis’ death. “How much is one person expected to endure?” he said. What troubles Watson is something he acknowledged both in the sentencing hearing and in an interview. Had Mendez just pled guilty, instead of taking his case to trial, he probably never would have learned of the abuse Mendez meted out on Phanthtaranth. “They both would be in right now,” he said, “and nobody would have even had a second guess about it.” 
 
 Oklahoma County District Court Victoria Phanthtaranth, Freddy Mendez, and their family, before Mendez murdered Phanthtaranth's daughter, Alexis. 
 
 Texas Department of Correction 
 
 Years later, White recalled that she was “shocked” when Judge Howard went far beyond the 10-year sentence she had offered. Still, White said she feels that 45 years is plenty fair. Lindley, she said, watched Turner “torture” her only son, “and then she got in her car with her friend to get hair products.” White said, “She deserved what she got.” White did not initially remember that her office had viewed Lindley as a victim, having charged Turner with assaulting her on the day he killed Titches. She acknowledged that many see child abuse and domestic violence as linked, and she said that in many of the cases she sees, the perpetrator has committed both. But, she said, she runs the child abuse division of the Dallas County Prosecutor’s Office, and a separate division handles domestic violence. “Why women stay, and that — I can’t speak to that; I have no expertise in that,” she said. Her division focuses on “only the children.” White also did not recall that someone else called 911 when Lindley hadn’t, but White said that fact didn’t mitigate her sense of Lindley’s guilt. (Judge Howard declined to be interviewed and did not respond to a written question about the 911 call.) A call from a mother would have carried more weight than one from a neighbor, White said, and the fact that someone else phoned didn’t relieve Lindley of her duty as a mother to take action. “In the end,” White said, “she walked out alive, and he didn’t.” Lindley stays in an all-women’s prison off a stretch of farmland halfway between Austin and Dallas. She has been behind bars eight years. Having lost her first attempt at parole, she will have to wait until 2016 to try again. The parole board cited its “nature of offense” rule, reserved for prisoners whose acts were too egregious for them to be granted clemency. Told that many people believe that in a situation like hers, they would do anything to protect their children from abuse, she said, “I was like that. ‘Oh, it couldn’t be me.’ But you really don’t know.” Titches would be 11 years old now. He’s been dead for twice as long as he was alive, so Lindley’s memories are frozen in his baby years — learning shapes and colors on the internet, playing with his Hokey Pokey Elmo. Titches' name is tattooed on the inside of her wrist. 
 
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– Tondalo Hall wasn't accused of abusing her two young children but was handed a 30-year sentence for failing to protect them from her abusive boyfriend. Her partner, meanwhile, nabbed a plea deal and served just two years for breaking the ribs and femur of their 3-month-old infant; he was released in 2006. The 31-year-old Hall appealed for clemency to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, but that appeal was denied Wednesday, leaving her with at least 15 more years behind bars and frustrating women's rights activists, BuzzFeed reports. The board—whose vice chair "seemed incredulous" during the hearing that Hall hadn't done more to help her kids, BuzzFeed notes—offered no explanation for its 5-0 decision against Hall, whose plight had received publicity from a BuzzFeed investigation last year. In court documents, testimony against Hall's boyfriend indicated he choked and punched her regularly, was verbally abusive, and isolated her from family and friends, the Washington Post notes. In her commutation application, Hall—whose sentence ends in 2034, with the possibility of parole in 2030—acknowledged her past mistakes but says she's since dedicated herself to becoming a better mom, taking parenting and anger management classes and earning her GED. "Despite my failures, I did not physically abuse my children," she wrote. "I was an active parent and a proud mother. I loved and cared for my children and I would appreciate the opportunity to watch them grow up." The co-founder of a national advocacy group that got 70,000 signatures on a petition to release Hall tells BuzzFeed, "The [board] had the responsibility to make things right and they failed with [Wednesday's] decision." Read more on her case here.