Lawmakers seek tougher domestic abuse penalties

Attempts to reduce domestic violence, which affects one in four Oklahomans, have been stymied at times by Oklahoma’s laws. Session by session, legislators have tried to fix that, and there are a few still alive that would help victims.

Go back to Kristin’s Law, Senate Bill 1491, which passed in 2016. That made repeat domestic violence offenses felonies, even if the incidents occurred more than a year apart.

In 2014, House Bill 2526, which then-Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law, required police officers investigating domestic abuse to ask the victim a series of questions known as a lethality assessment. The assessment had been used in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, and the new law required it statewide. Twenty-five years of research at Johns Hopkins University showed that a screening process would have recognized the danger facing 87% of those killed through domestic violence, and 92% of those nearly killed.

This year, progress. As The Oklahoman reported, Senate Bill 1470, which advanced unanimously in the Oklahoma Senate, doesn’t directly influence whether someone can be charged or prosecuted. Instead, details of a domestic abuse survivor’s personal history can be used to reduce their sentence.

“We are stating a policy in Oklahoma that domestic violence, physical abuse and sexual violence is unacceptable,” said the bill’s author and Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City. “Our levels are disparagingly high, and we must address that.’

Several bills would crack down on Oklahoma’s domestic violence rate, which consistently ranks among the top three in the nation and reached a 20-year high at the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic in 2020.

Senate Bill 1211 by Kristen Thompson, R-Oklahoma City, raises the maximum penalty for domestic abuse by strangulation from three to 10 years. Researchers have found strangulation can cause long-term injuries and trauma and is often a precursor to homicide. Despite that, it was not classified as a violent crime.

House Bill 3784 by Rep. John George, R-Newalla, and Darrell Weaver, R-Moore, adds domestic assault upon an intimate partner or a family or household member with a deadly weapon to the list of crimes for which offenders must remain incarcerated for at least 85% of the sentence. The Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board recommended the change in its 2023 annual report, noting that the state’s criminal code is more lenient towards someone who assaults an intimate partner than a stranger.

More than 25,000 domestic abuse incidents were reported to Oklahoma law enforcement in 2022, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Of those, 105 victims were murdered.

Oklahoma Watch (OklahomaWatch. org) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.