Domestic violence and intimate partner murder should be felonies
In response to the rise of domestic violence and intimate partner homicide throughout Connecticut, I, along with 32 House and Senate members on both sides of the aisle, introduced H.B. 6431: An Act Concerning Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence Murder at the beginning of this legislative session. This act is a vital step toward addressing these crimes and ensuring that justice is served.
Specifically, H.B. 6431 seeks to define and create a crime for domestic violence and intimate partner murder, making it a Class A felony. This change would help establish domestic violence murder as the serious and deadly crime it truly is and provide greater protection and support for victims while holding perpetrators accountable. While I applaud this week’s passage of S.B. 5: An Act Strengthening the Protections Against and Response to Domestic Violence, the bill is missing our crucial language, despite numerous pleas from victims, advocates, and other legislators who support it. Nevertheless, I am continuing to advocate for its inclusion and search for ways to ensure that it happens.
The statistics surrounding domestic violence and intimate partner homicide in Connecticut are alarming. Since 2000, there have been 325 people killed by their intimate partners, and 87 percent of the victims were women. Connecticut averages 14 intimate partner killings every year, and the lethality and brutality of these crimes have become even more extreme, highlighting the urgent need for legislative action.
The current criminal law in Connecticut makes it difficult for prosecutors to charge perpetrators of intimate partner killings with murder. This is because it simply does not account for the patterns of systematic violence that often precede the ultimate acts of murder. Rather, the current legal framework gives these perpetrators a way to avoid a murder charge by claiming that they acted in the “heat of passion”— even if those perpetrators had been abusing their partners for years prior. Avoiding a murder charge often means pleading down to a lesser manslaughter charge, meaning violent killers will often serve sentences shorter than the length of time they had been abusing their victims. This goes against the principles of justice and public policy.
Plea-bargained sentences for intimate partner killings in Connecticut have surged in recent years and now steadily outnumber trials. In 2014, plea deals were accepted in 77 percent of intimate partner killing cases and by 2016, 100 percent of intimate partner sentences were the results of plea deals. Plea-bargained prison sentences for intimate partner murder are an average of 18 years shorter than those imposed at trial, and the majority of those plea deals were for first-degree manslaughter, not murder.
Domestic homicide researchers agree that intimate partner murder is predictable based on patterns of coercive control, that it is planned and premeditated, and that it is thus not a crime of passion. H.B. 6431 would treat domestic violence and intimate partner killings accordingly — as murder. Its introduction to the penal code will have a clear deterrent effect on this type of crime, add weight to reports of domestic abuse, and give closure to the families of victims of domestic violence murder.
Opponents of the bill argue that increasing the penalty will not deter intimate partner murder. However, studies have shown that states employing the felony murder rule, which provides that causing death during the commission of a felony will result in a significantly harsher penalty, have a lower percentage of eligible felonies resulting in death. The knowledge that causing death could risk a prison sentence of 20 years to life generally functions as more of a deterrent than knowing the worst penalty a perpetrator might suffer is a few years behind bars.
Based on the evidence, our language in H.B. 6431 must be passed in SB 5 or another bill this year. Our language will help to establish a legal framework that recognizes the severity of these crimes and gives the necessary tools for prosecutors to hold perpetrators accountable. It is time to take a strong stand against domestic violence and intimate partner murder and this legislation is a crucial step in that direction.”