Broderick Asks Governor for Clemency

Former La Jolla socialite Betty Broderick, convicted of murdering her ex-husband and his new wife in their bed, slayings that spawned a book and two TV movies, has asked for gubernatorial clemency so that she can be set free.

Broderick, 50, alleges that she deserves clemency because she was a victim of battered-wife syndrome, committed the murders in the “heat of passion” and had been driven to the verge of a nervous breakdown by a cold and manipulative ex-spouse.

Convicted in 1992 after two trials, she was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison for murdering her ex-husband, prominent attorney Daniel T. Broderick, and his wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, by sneaking into their stylish home in 1989 and shooting them.

At the trial, Broderick admitted firing the gun but portrayed herself as the victim of a heartless husband who had discarded her for a younger and slimmer woman and then used his legal skills and clout with the local judiciary to gain unfair advantage in the divorce settlement and child custody hearings.

The request for a clemency hearing must be reviewed by prosecutors and the Board of Prison Terms before being sent to the governor. With Gov. Pete Wilson in his final 30 days of office, it appears likely that the decision will be left to Gray Davis after he takes office.

The San Diego County district attorney’s office opposes Broderick’s request as a rehash of assertions that were rejected by the jury and an appeals court.

“I think it demeans the cause for truly battered women for Betty Broderick to claim she was a battered woman. She wasn’t,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells, who prosecuted Broderick.

Broderick, played by Meredith Baxter in the two television movies, asks that her sentence be sliced to 20 years and that she be given credit for having been a good prisoner. That would make her eligible for parole almost immediately, rather than in 2011.