‘INESCAPABLE ABUSE’

Sex-Trafficking Victim Can Argue Killing Was Justified, Wisconsin Court Rules

In a split 4-3 decision, the court agreed that Chrystul Kizer can argue she killed her sex trafficker as a result of being trafficked.

A woman can argue that she was justified in killing the man who sex-trafficked her because of the alleged abuse, according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In a split 4-3 decision, the court ruled Wednesday morning that Chrystul Kizer’s lawyers can argue the slaying was the result of her being sex trafficked, opening the door to immunity in the case. Kizer, who is now 22 but 17 at the time of the homicide, alleges that Randall Volar sexually assaulted her and sold her to others for sex after she met him on a trafficking website. In June 2018, she said she shot Volar and burned down his house after he tried to touch her. Though the court made clear it wasn’t giving trafficking victims “blanket immunity” from prosecution, it did rule that Kizer should be given the opportunity to argue that her crimes were “committed as a direct result” of being trafficked, which could give her immunity under state law. “Human trafficking can trap victims in a cycle of seemingly inescapable abuse that can continue for months or even years,” the court wrote.