Joni Ankerson Holbrook is back home in northern Michigan after serving half of a 15-year maximum prison term for the murder of her husband, Paul Holbrook, a state police sergeant. The 56-year-old was sentenced to six to 15 years in prison for second-degree murder. She served seven-and-a-half years.

Holbrook received a lighter-than-normal sentence in 2009 because her attorney, Jesse Williams, persuaded a Benzie County judge that years of domestic abuse mitigated the killing. It didn’t excuse it, but she maintained that the violence she believed she couldn’t escape needed to be taken into account. (Paul Holbrook’s family maintained at her sentencing that the abuse never happened.)

Nonetheless, Holbrook was released in April to a Benzonia motel. She’s since moved to Traverse City to live with her mother. Returning to the world has been a struggle. Holbrook, who spent a career in professional office jobs and worked in district court before she became a felon, now works manual labor in a factory. She would like to find work to help victims of domestic violence, but so far she’s found no opportunities.

In this week's Northern Express - sister publication of The Ticker - Holbrook sits down with writer Patrick Sullivan to discuss her crime, her time spent in prison, her release, and what her future holds. "It was nothing I was ever prepared for," says Holbrook of going to prison. "I mean, obviously, the point where I got to where I thought killing my husband was the only way for me to get out, that’s how damaged and broken domestic violence made me. And thinking that that was okay now shocks me, but it was the only way I knew then, how to get away. So, when you get to prison, you better decide real quick if you’re going to stick up for yourself, learn how to say no, or just be a victim all over again."

While Holbrook describes herself as a victim, she acknowledges that Paul Halbrook's family and others may not see her that way. "He was a victim, obviously," she says. "He was victim of a horrific, terrible crime. Was I a victim of over 10 years of horrific abuse — mental, physical, sexual, emotional? Absolutely. I mean, and the caveat to that is the fact that he was a police officer. He held all the power, control, authority." She continues: "Am I a victim? Absolutely. And I will never stop saying that. I’m not a victim anymore. It will never happen again."

Now a convicted felon, Holbrook is adjusting to life outside prison, including trying to find work. "I understand people’s reluctance, but I just wish people would talk to me," she says. "I wish someone would give me a chance. I believe I am a wealth of information, as far as the experience in the law, being a victim of domestic violence, being in prison…I want to work as an advocate. I want to be the voice for victims."

Read Sullivan's complete interview with Holbrook in this week's Northern Express cover story, "What Now?" The Northern Express is available online, or pick up a copy at one of nearly 700 spots in 14 counties across northern Michigan.