Latoya Dickens, who was released from the Arrendale Transitional Center in September 2024 after serving 25 years in jail for the murder of her violent husband, is not taking her freedom for granted.
She shared her excitement with 11Alive, saying, “Oh my God — thank you! I’m free! This is amazing. I can’t even describe how I feel right now, but I’m so glad to be free.”
“I’ve been waiting for this day for so long, and I’m not going to say I thought it would never come because I knew it would. I just had to keep holding on to faith and be patient,” she added. “I’m so ready to see my family and face the world. With all the challenges that I’ve been through on the inside, I know I’ll make it outside.”
She was let out on parole after a 2022 letter to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole explained how her relationship with her late husband came to be.
Dickens met her future husband when he was 17 and she was just 13 years old, according to advocates.
“Their entire relationship was plagued by her husband’s controlling behavior through physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, including throughout her three pregnancies. The night of the fatal incident, Latoya was at the point of considering suicide after being exhausted by years of abuse,” the advocates said.
WSB-TV reported she had been abused for 14 years, including being tossed off a porch while she was eight months pregnant.
Dickens chose to divorce her husband in January 1999, but he refused to let her. He died from his wounds a few days after the two got into a fight over a knife.
Dickens’ husband disabled her car as she tried to escape the day of the stabbing. “He shoved me to the sofa, and everything happened so fast,” she recounted, adding, “I remember calling 911.”
Dickens was found guilty of felony murder in 2001 and given a life sentence by a judge.
Dickens’ lawyer, Janis Mann, said that while the trial concentrated on the incident, it ignored her past abuse. The Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence then collaborated with Mann to provide proof of the harm Dickens had experienced over the years. This evidence was crucial in the parole board’s decision to grant her release.
Dickens lamented, “The story that they’ve heard is not my story. There’s so much more to my story. This is the final chapter.”
Now, Dickens, a cherished grandmother and mother, is using her newfound freedom to support domestic violence survivors.
“The rest of my life is going to be about helping people get to where I am today and that’s on the other side,” she declared. “I want to make sure that I can remain a face for domestic violence and that I can help support the women that are still on the inside, because I feel like they all deserve a second chance, just like I’ve been given today.”
According to the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness, 75% of domestic violence related homicides happen upon separation. Dickens hopes to help bring down this figure with the new path she has taken.
