Louise Harris, an African-American woman, was convicted of masterminding her husband’s murder. Although the jury sentenced her to life in prison, an Alabama judge overrode that decision and sentenced her to death. After several years of a failing marriage with Isaiah Harris, who regularly beat her, Louise developed a relationship with Lorenzo McCarter and confided in him about the abuse. He arranged with Michael Sockwell and Alex Hood to kill Harris on his way to work.

When the prosecutor charged McCarter with a capital crime, he agreed to testify against Louise to save his life. Louise claimed she had not known about the plan to kill Harris. Louise had a long history of abuse and trauma: She had been sexually assaulted at age 11; she had witnessed her older sister die suddenly of a seizure in her arms, leaving Louise, at age 14, to raise her younger siblings; she had seen her younger brother being pulled from a lake after he drowned, and she had been the one to discover the body of her father, who was murdered.

She had also been beaten severely and regularly by her first husband, John Wesley Robinson; she had been abused for years by her common-law husband Jesse Lee Halland then by her husband Isaiah Harris, resulting in multiple trips to the hospital; and she was also abused by the man from whom she had sought comfort, Lorenzo McCarter. This abuse and trauma resulted in Louise suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Battered Women’sSyndrome and Dissociative Disorder. None of this evidence was presented at her trial.

Hood and McCarter were sentenced to life without parole and Sockwell, the person who actually shot Harris, was sentenced to death. In October 2004, Louise’s death sentence was reversed and she awaits re-sentencing.

Friendship card with handwritten missive on the inside. Included is a short message written on paper signed Louise. Original matching handwritten envelope is included.