Freedom Campaigns

Toby Yniguez is FREE!

Genevieve ("Toby") Yniguez was finally paroled on October 18, 2004 after being granted parole four times by the Board of Prison Terms. Former Governor Davis had repeatedly reversed the Board's previous decisions to release this 69-year-old great-grandmother. Governor Schwarzenegger declined to review the Board's latest decision to grant Toby parole, paving the way to her release.

Toby served over 20 years in prison for killing her abusive boyfriend. Our friends at the University of Southern California's Post-Conviction Justice Project have been representing Toby since the Project's inception in 1993. We commend their dedication and persistence in securing Toby's release on parole.

Toby was among the 34 incarcerated survivors of domestic violence whom Free Battered Women (then the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison) assisted with filing a clemency petition with then-Governor Wilson’s office back in 1992. No one from the Governor’s office ever responded to her plea for mercy.

Read about Toby and other incarcerated survivors in a 2003 Sacramento Bee article.