Woman convicted of accessory to murder freed with help of USC student

Connie Keel is a free woman today. Denied parole five times, she was released from the women's prison in Chino nearly 30 years after she was convicted as an accomplice in a robbery and murder carried out by her husband. KPCC's Steven Cuevas says Keel owes her freedom to a USC law student who argued a new angle to win her parole.

Steven Cuevas: In the summer of 1980, Connie Keel – then 23 – went for a drive with her husband and another man. They stopped at a liquor store in the Bay Area city of Campbell. The men were armed with handguns – and decided to rob the place.

Keel says she tried to talk her husband out of it – but in they went. They robbed the store and shot the clerk to death. Connie Keel never left the car, but prosecutors in Santa Clara County charged her with murder and armed robbery – and won convictions. She was sentenced to 25 years to life.

Connie Keel: I know a lot of women in the institution I just came from that have similar case as mine who are not the perpetrator of the crime who are forced to be at the scene of a crime they were not willing to be at. I hope that all this press coverage I am receiving doesn't end with me.

Cuevas: Keel – the mother of two children – spent nearly 30 years in jail. But her supporters say she was in a different kind of prison long before the murder.

Adam Reich: She was sexually abuse by three different uncles, beaten by her mother, raped and physically abused by her ex-husband, one abusive relationship after abusive relationship.

Cuevas: Law student Adam Reich handled Keel's sixth try at parole as part of the USC Law School's Post-Conviction Justice Project. The Santa Clara County district attorney's office opposed Keel's release, saying she wasn't rehabilitated. But Reich tried a new argument.

He told the parole board that Keel couldn't disobey a husband who abused her physically and sexually. Keel's husband backed that up with testimony from prison. Three decades ago, the law didn't allow Keel's attorney to offer an abuse defense. But with new rulings since, Reich could – and he won Keel's freedom.

Reich: The facts of Ms. Keel's case speak for themselves. She should have been released countless times before. I think that as a result of the work the Post-Conviction Project, many of the women who served beyond what they should have are able to return home to their families.

Cuevas: Connie Keel is 52 now. She'll live in a transitional home in Claremont for about six months – and hopes to resettle with family in the Los Angeles area. Her ex-husband is serving life without parole.