For California domestic violence victims who commit violent crimes new bill provides hope

LOS ANGELES — When Susan Bustamante was on trial for murder in 1987, she was not able to give her side of the story. She was convicted in a two-day trial of helping her brother kill her husband for a $50,000 insurance payout. Before the killing, she had revealed to her brother that she was a victim of intimate partner violence. “Nothing was allowed on domestic violence,” Bustamante said. “They said (my husband) wasn’t on trial, I was.” Bustamante is among a group of women convicted of violent crimes who could benefit from the passage of a bill in the…