Metro

Prison support group starts petition to free Barbara Sheehan

Free Barbara Sheehan!

A prison support group has started an online petition calling on Gov. Cuomo to grant clemency to the Queens woman serving a five-year sentence for gun possession in the fatal shooting of her ex-cop husband.

Sheehan, in her sixth month at an upstate prison, contacted the New York State Prisoner Assistance Center (NYSPAC) with hopes they can convince Cuomo to set her free.

“She doesn’t belong there,” said Mario Vredenburg, the organization’s executive director. “Mrs. Sheehan’s sentence was illegal under law…it’s a waste of tax payers dollars to have her there when she shouldn’t be.”

Sheehan was acquitted of murder after shooting her abusive husband Sgt. Raymond Sheehan a total of 11 times with a revolver and a Glock in their Howard Beach home in February 2008. Sheehan maintained that she had suffered years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband — who reportedly liked to don adult diapers and high heels in kinky sex sessions — and that she killed him because she feared for her life.

The jury found she acted in self-defense when she shot the retired cop but found her guilty of criminal possession of a weapon for picking up the Glock and firing more bullets into his prine body.

After Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron sentenced Sheehan in November 2011 to five years in prison, she was released on $1 million bail for almost two years before an appellate court denied a request to reduce the sentence last summer.

The NYSPAC started the petition on Change.org three weeks ago and it has close to 1400 signatures from around the world.

“We are hoping for 15 to 25 thousand signatures, positive press and with our clemency request Governor Cuomo will have no choice, but to let Barbara go,” said Vredenburg.

An executive clemency won’t give Sheehan a pardon, but will release her from prison to serve two-and-a-half years parole — an amount issued for first time felony offenders.

Vredenburg’s service — which isn’t free — thoroughly reviewed Sheehan’s case files and believes it was “proven” that she was abused and was sentenced unfairly.

“The law was misapplied, if the statute for domestic violence defendants wasn’t written for Mrs. Sheehan then who was it written for?” questioned Vredenburg referring to “Jenna’s Law” which gives first-time violent felony offenders an indeterminate sentence if the victim’s domestic violence against the offender was a factor in the offender’s commission of the crime.

Sheehan’s Court of Appeals review request is still pending.