April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and honestly, I was not aware of that fact until doing research for this interview. It is opportune in reference to my conversation with Joanna, though I believe a thirty day designation is something she would find interesting and worthy of comment. For Joanna Katz, every day is awareness day.
On June, 17, 1988, Joanna and a female friend were abducted at gunpoint, beaten, tortured, and gang raped repeatedly by five men. Bloodied and dazed, Joanna was able to escape her attackers, find help, save her friend from imminent death, and fight for the conviction of her assailants. It would be enough to end the story here, but thanks to a South Carolina justice system that, at the time, continued to emotionally brutalize victims of sexual crimes, Joanna’s story was only beginning.
Joanna’s inspiring account of survival, both physically and emotionally, is chronicled in the PBS documentary, Sentencing the Victim. As a compliment to this podcast, I encourage you to watch the documentary. I will warn you, this is a brutal film in it’s subject matter. It is dark, disturbing, and infuriating at times, but it also encapsulates hope, support, and courage in its purest form.
In our conversation, I ask Joanna about life post-documentary, where her advocacy has taken her, and what has changed, if anything, socially and/or politically, where victim’s rights are concerned. I believe this conversation is enlightening and inspirational. And this is the Schmootzcast after all, so Joanna is delightfully humorous, so entertaining as well.
