One domestic violence law still needed (Poughkeepsie, New York)

Here at Dastardly, we have highlighted this issue for years now, which is all the dads who kill the mom or kids while out on bail. Within one year, there were four women dead in Dutchess County, New York--all killed by a man with a criminal record who was out on bail. Shame on the NYS Assembly!

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110807/OPINION01/108070346/Editorial-1-domestic-violence-law-still-needed?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CPoughkeepsieJournal.com%7Cs

Editorial: 1 domestic-violence law still needed
10:44 PM, Aug. 6, 2011

Following a series of deaths in Dutchess County connected to domestic violence, state Sen. Steve Saland stepped up with a package of bills to strengthen laws and help victims.

Three have now passed the Legislature and have been signed into law by the governor. Yet, for reasons passing understanding, one of the senator's proposals never got real consideration in the Assembly after gaining Senate approval.

This intolerable situation must be remedied. The bill, which empowers judges to take into account certain risk factors to domestic-violence victims when determining bail for defendants, is too important to ignore.

It could, in fact, make a world of difference to victims.

The three bills that passed are, indeed, praiseworthy. One makes it easier for a family or household member to qualify for assistance from the state Department of Social Services in the wake of a domestic-violence attack.

Another closes loopholes to ensure orders of protection stay in place until an abuser is sentenced, not just convicted of the crime.

And a third, signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week, fixes a glitch in New York's system that made it too easy for those convicted of certain misdemeanors in domestic-violence cases to continue to own and purchase firearms.

But Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, and others recognize the profound importance of the fourth bill.

Here in Dutchess County, four women have been killed in a span of a year, even though, in each case, the perpetrators or suspects had a history with the judicial system. Several, in fact, had domestic-violence-related arrests on their records and had been ordered to stay away from the victims. Nevertheless, they were free on bail, and these women were killed.

In one particularly grisly case, a man fatally stabbed his girlfriend in front of the victim's young daughters; documents showed the woman had relayed to a court referee that the man had threatened to kill her a month before the murder.

There is no way a just society can stand idly by and allow these fiendish acts to continue.

Defendants do have rights, and that basic principle must be upheld even when new, well-intentioned laws are being considered.

Yet why shouldn't judges be given latitude to ensure victims are protected as well, especially in these cases where gross deficiencies are so obvious?

Too often domestic-violence cases are treated differently, with society seeing them as a matter to be sorted out among family members or loved ones.

And, too often, that cavalier attitude has been met with deadly results.

Saland's fourth bill did pass the GOP-controlled state Senate, but it died in the Democratic-led Assembly, specifically its Codes Committee.

Yet Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, a Democratic member of the Codes Committee, has sponsored similar legislation, with Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, a co-sponsor.

That legislation, too, was referred to the Codes Committee, which took no action.

Prosecutors, law enforcement officers and those who work in battered-women shelters say such "risk-factor" legislation would greatly enhance the protection of victims.

What more needs to be said to get an earnest discussion going?