Woman may get out of prison early under new state law

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A woman convicted 30 years ago of killing her supposedly abusive husband in a well-publicized case may get out of prison early under a new state law aimed at victims of domestic or sexual abuse.

Roberta Borden was found guilty of the February 1978 killing of her husband, Delbert Earl Borden, in their Springfield home. She and her lover, Donald Wayne Pilkerton, shot Delbert Borden through the heart with a sawed-off .22 rifle while he watched television in the couple's home.

Borden, the shooter, was sentenced to a mandatory 50 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

But that chance could come as soon as today when Borden, now 63, goes before a parole board to review her case and determine if she should receive parole early.

The chance comes under a provision of a law Gov. Matt Blunt signed in August 2007. Blunt praised the statute as a way to strengthen the rights of abuse victims and included early parole consideration for certain convicts.

To qualify, a convict had to have pleaded guilty or been convicted of killing their spouse or domestic partner in a trial that started before 1991; had no prior felony convictions; has no other recourse for getting out of prison; and was "a victim of continual and substantial physical or sexual domestic violence that was not presented as an affirmative defense at trial or sentencing ..."

Borden and four other inmates will be the first to test the law's early release provision.

"At this point there have been no other hearings held or scheduled under the law," said Dean Watson, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

According to testimony from Borden's young children, they came out of their bedroom after hearing the shot on Feb. 27, 1978, and were tied up by a masked man. At the urging of Pilkerton, Borden's son called 911 and reported that three masked men had broken in, shot Delbert Borden and knocked their mother out.

Roberta Borden later suggested to police that the robbery had been connected to a disgraced financial consultant who had recently moved away.

But investigators eventually arrested Pilkerton and questioned why Borden didn't show injuries consistent with being knocked unconscious.

She was charged with accessory to murder in March 1978, a charge that was later upgraded to capital murder.

A Greene County jury convicted Borden on Sept. 1, 1978, of capital murder, partly with the help of Pilkerton, who agreed to testify against Borden in exchange for a prison term of no more than 30 years. He eventually got 30 years and was released in 2000.

Greene County prosecutors say they want to make sure Borden serves her full term. Assistant Prosecutor Todd Myers sent a letter last week to Steve Long, chairman of the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole, arguing that Borden shouldn't receive a hearing.

He agreed that Borden met three of the four criteria under the new law to qualify for a hearing but said there was no evidence that she suffered continual abuse at the hands of her husband.

"I have checked the records of the Greene County Prosecutor's Office, and there is no record of any cases involving domestic violence or sexual assault between the victim and Ms. Borden," Myers wrote.

He told the Springfield News-Leader in an interview, "Of all the men involved in this case, she had a far stronger dominant personality."

However, during a preliminary hearing, Borden's son testified he had seen his father, a former Springfield police officer, hit his mother on several occasions.

In case she still gets a hearing, Myers argued against parole in his letter to Long, saying the elaborate planning that went into the crime shouldn't be rewarded with a shorter sentence.

"Granting parole to Ms. Borden would undermine the criminal justice system," he wrote. "How can a victim's family or any citizen have faith in a criminal justice system that changes a sentence imposed by law?"