http://latrishapruitt.virtual-memorials.com/
        
       Latrisha Monique Pruitt
May 16 1981 - November 24 2007

A Birmingham mother of three who was on maternity leave after giving birth just three weeks ago was found dead in her burned home.

The weekend death of Latrisha Pruitt, 26, has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Monday.

While police searched for Pruitt's killer, her family and co-workers on Monday tried to absorb the shock of her death.
http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/119615498143910.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Bay Terrace resident Jeanne Kane's divorce documents tell the tale of a woman brutalized by her husband for nearly three decades before she finally summoned the courage to leave him.

Last January, police said her ex-husband gunned her down in a Pleasant Plains park-and-ride because he was angry over the hefty settlement she was awarded

The last words Jennifer Mae Alvarez typed came on New Year's Eve during a live chat with her boyfriend shortly after authorities said she warned him that her estranged husband was back.

"Hold on," she wrote, just before the boyfriend later said he saw 36-year-old Christopher Alvarez's face appear behind her on the computer's Web cam. Investigators said it was the last time anyone but her husband saw the 24-year-old mother of three alive.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/treasurecoast/content/tcoast/epaper/2008/01/12/0112slmurder.html?imw=Y

Lightsey called local officers on consecutive days to report domestic disturbances with Burgess, 32, the father of one of her sons. The second time, on Jan. 3, she filed charges against him for threatening to kill her, and obtained a restraining order barring Burgess from having contact with her.

Burgess was set free when a representative of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office made the recommendation to downgrade two counts of simple assault and a charge of making terroristic threats.

Approximately two hours later, police found her dead

"The day she was killed was the first day she brought pictures of her kids. She was going to go to court and sever ties with him permanently,"

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080112/NEWS/801120361/1070/NEWS0

On Dec. 6, a passing motorist discovered the body of a woman -- still
unidentified -- missing hands, feet and head. The mutilated body was in five black plastic garbage bags along Stitcher Road in LaGrange, which is west of Macon near the Alabama line.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/01/08/emerson_0109.html

Birmingham
January 10, 2008
Authorities said Riggs kicked in the back door of Norber Lea Payne's apartment, walked into her bedroom and shot her multiple times with handgun.

The 40-year-old mother was pronounced dead at the scene. Her two daughters, ages 18 and 20, were home in the other bedroom of the apartment but were not injured.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/01/man_surrenders_in_early_mornin.html

Alabama Court of Civil Appeals
Section 30-3-133, a part of the Custody and Domestic or Family Abuse Act, provides:"In every proceeding where there is at issue adispute as to the custody of a child, a determination by the court that domestic or family violence has occurred raises a rebuttable presumption by the court that it is in the best interest of the child to reside with the parent who is not a perpetrator of domestic or family violence in the location of that parent's choice, within or outside the state.
Therefore, the mother says, the trial court was required to make an express finding as to whether the presumption that it was not in the best interest of the children to reside with the father had been rebutted.
We disagree. 
www.barw.com/publications_opinions.cfm?ID=4818

McCartney v. McCartney
COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OF ALABAMA

Overview: Judgment was affirmed as trial court properly concluded that a husband's business stocks were separate property under Ala. Code § 30-2-51(a) and did not include them in a property division award as the stock was acquired as a gift; there was no evidence indicating that the husband used the stock for the common benefit of the parties.

http://www.lexisone.com/lx1/caselawsitemap/State-Courts-Alabama-100029-1-2007.html

Two children were at home when their father stabbed their mother to death
early Monday morning, according to Ozark
officials.

Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey said 41-year-old Darrin Keith Johnson of Newton turned himself in to authorities on Monday after admitting to stabbing 40-year-old Allison Fuller Johnson multiple times in the chest, back and throat inside her mother’s home at 157 Bradford St. in Ozark.

The 14-year-old was in a back room at the time of the stabbing, while the 5-year-old was outside, Spivey said.

http://www.dothaneagle.com/gulfcoasteast/dea/local_news.apx.-content-articles-DEA-2007-12-24-0008.html

And they let her know that the man she was arrested with when she was caught selling marijuana, a man with previous prison sentences for selling drugs, has already been released.

It's not unusual for a woman to be sentenced to a longer term than a man is for the same crime, Potok says. AIM and other groups have been trying to change Alabama's sentencing laws to achieve greater consistency between the genders and throughout the regions of the state for the same crimes.

http://www.al.com/religion/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/living/1197627585299790.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

BIRMINGHAM -- A suspect in the shooting death of a Birmingham woman in front of her 7-year-old son has been arrested while hiding in a car trunk outside his mother's house.

Police said Arthur Lee Kirksey was charged Sunday with capital murder in the Wednesday night slaying of 25-year-old Winifred Bryant, a former girlfriend. It was Birmingham's first homicide this year.
-- AP

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080107/NEWS02/801070305/1009