Bills toughen domestic violence sentencing

Both the House and Senate have passed versions of a bill that would toughen state sentencing laws for the worst perpetrators of domestic violence.

The sentencing reforms in the bill, which passed unanimously in both chambers, were a major priority of Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna this year. He estimates the tougher sentences would apply to about 10 percent of those convicted of domestic violence crimes — those with long records of abuse.

The bill would change state sentencing guidelines to allow judges to consider a convicted defendant’s prior convictions for domestic violence-related misdemeanor crimes. Current guidelines do not factor misdemeanor convictions into felony sentences except in traffic crimes.

“I think it sends a message that people who have a history of domestic violence should suffer the consequences,” said Grace Huang, public policy coordinator for the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “It recognizes that domestic violence is a pattern of behavior.”

Engrossed Senate House Bill 2777, which passed the Senate 47-0 on Wednesday, wraps provisions from three different domestic violence bills into a single bill that includes a number of reforms designed to crack down on abusers and protect the rights of victims.

Among them:

• Arresting police officers would be required to consider an abuser’s history of domestic violence, including whether there has been a pattern of abuse.

• At the time of a defendant’s first court appearance on a domestic violence charge, the prosecutor would have to provide the court with the defendant’s criminal history and history of no-contact and protection orders.

• When issuing a domestic violence protection order, the court would have the authority to restrain the defendant from “cyber-stalking,” defined as monitoring the actions, location or communications of the victim with wire or electronic technology.

• Anyone 13 or older who is the victim of violence in a dating relationship could petition the court for a domestic violence protection order if his or her abuser is 16 years or older. Under current law, only those 16 or older may petition for a protection order.

Debra Adams, director of the YWCA SafeChoice Domestic Violence Program in Vancouver, said she is delighted with the bill, including the cyber-stalking provision. The YWCA operates a shelter in Vancouver for victims of domestic abuse.

“There’s this belief that the Internet doesn’t leave a trail or that you can erase things,” Adams said. “But almost everyone in shelters gets threatening e-mails from abusers.”

Adams said she believes the increased focus on the records of serial abusers will encourage victims to escape their abusers and cooperate with prosecutors.

“I think they will have more confidence in the system that supports prosecution and arrest to know there is a little more meat to the law,” Adams said. “To give officers more information at the front of the crime and in the prosecution is really great. That’s been overlooked in the past.”

Language added by the Senate Judiciary Committee at the urging of defense lawyers would allow a court to order a lesser sentence for a “victim defendant” — an abuse victim who commits a crime in self-defense.

“It would be a mitigating factor,’ said Travis Stearn of the Washington Defender Association. “The court could have done that without this rule, but this gives them express permission.”

In proposing the sentencing legislation, McKenna argued that state courts were failing to carry out the intent of Washington’s Domestic Violence Protection Act by not considering the full criminal records of serial abusers.

Language passed by the House, removed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, then restored on the Senate floor would address a grisly wrinkle in state law that was brought to Sen. Joe Zarelli’s attention by Steve and Kerry Crane after the death of their daughter, Erin D. Wilson, of Vancouver.

Wilson was strangled to death by her estranged husband in November 2007. Her husband, Larry F. Van Schaick, was convicted of second-degree murder in March 2009 and sentenced to more than 14 years in prison.

When the Cranes tried to claim their daughter’s body, they learned that under Washington law, her next of kin — her estranged husband and murderer — had first right to custody of the remains. They had to petition the state for an exception, according to Zarelli’s legislative assistant.

Zarelli’s amendment states that a person who has been charged with killing his or her spouse has no right to determine how the remains are disposed of.

The domestic violence bill now goes back to the House for concurrence with the changes made in the Senate.

Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.