"Georgia’s victims of IPV face two options: being killed at the hands of their abuser, or going to prison for taking the life of their abuser.”

"The words of Jennifer Thomas, an advocate from the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, hung in the air as I sat in Pulaski State Prison. Serving a life sentence and ineligible for parole until the completion of 30+ years, I am one of the criminalized survivors Jennifer spoke of that had taken action to defend myself against my abusive husband. I was immediately left with the obvious question: Why does it have to be this way? My despondency as a criminalized IPV survivor shifted following this meeting. For the first time it became clear that there are intervention options available to help IPV victims safely escape their abuser without the loss of life or the need for incarceration. My hope that we could create a better system was ignited.” -– Beth Muse

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Igniting Hope Georgia began as a conversation between Beth Muse and Luci Harrell in the law library of Georgia's largest women's prison. The two began identifying areas within the state's criminal code that made it extremely difficult but still possible for survivors to be prosecuted for an offense other than murder when they defended themselves or their children to the death against an abusive partner. In this way, through our early years, Igniting Hope Georgia operated more as a thinktank, focused on causes and effects of DV-related offenses of all types, and on how we could use the experience of being involved in tragic incidents that resulted in the loss of life to inform law enforcement and community responses on the front end, to prevent that level of harm before it happened.

In 2021, Igniting Hope Georgia became an official nonprofit entity, began partnering with the Georgia Commission on Family Violence and building relationships with a plethora of people with lived experience, nonprofit leaders, criminal legal experts, and community advocates to lead the charge for policies, trauma-informed support, and practical solutions surrounding the prosecution, and hopeful release, of survivors like Beth.

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Our team tracks state statistics, including average serve times for survivors incarcerated for life or the equivalent. We watchdog legislative changes of interest, including recent changes to Georgia's Family Violence Act that pertain to law enforcement's identification and use of the label "predominant aggressor." With our partners, we work to create dialogue around the legal implications of intimate partner violence and self defense laws, courtroom customs and how evidence is introduced or excluded, lengthy sentences, and the fact that Black and Brown and LGBTQ communities are disproportionately, negatively affected by a lack of societal understanding of how survivors of family violence are treated. We take a restorative approach in informing and supporting the criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors, and policy experts bravely advocating for the release of our sisters and brothers affected by punitive laws, policies, and antiquated practices.

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And we do it all with the advice and direction of those we serve.