A legislative template in Georgia, which would reduce the punishments for those who could combine their crimes of domestic abuse, is on the way to becoming laws.
Women across the country are in prison because they killed their misuse of self -defense. Others were forced to commit crime with their perpetrators. It is particularly likely that women with color due to abuse due to crimes end up in prison, experts said.
The Bill 582 house adopted the Senate 53-1 on Thursday after the house had overwhelmed it last month. As soon as the house approved final changes that are expected, it will go to the Republican governor Brian Kemp's desk for his signature.
According to the Georgia Coalition against domestic violence, over 100 women in Georgia were able to receive shorter prison terms. Mary Favours, a imprisoned abuse survivor, whose history of the AP reported, hopes to work in a crushed women's home when she gets out. She is in prison because she killed her misused husband. She says he had jumped on a knife that she had grabbed to defend herself.
If Kemp signs the law, Georgia would be given to Oklahoma, Illinois, New York and California in prison in prison in domestic abuse or, because of a crime, to give the chance of asking for lower punishments and proving evidence to prove that abuse has carried out their crimes.
The legislative template sponsored by the Republican MP Stan Gunter would also make it easier for people who prove in the future to prove that their crime has been driven by abuse and that they have more evidence. The current law of Georgia is strictly about what evidence can provide for abuse people and under what circumstances you can present it.
“House Bill 582 would prevent the survivors from serving long sentences for behaviors that are needed for their own survival,” said Senator Bo Hatchett, the Republican who was drafted. “House Bill 582 would enable Georgia's criminal law to make the modern understanding of the society for domestic violence.”
According to Georgia's draft law, the judge would have to impose a prison sentence of 10 to 30 years if a judge determined that violence, violence or child abuse in the family contributed to a minimum sentence of life in the prison sentence, unless the public prosecutors vote for a lower prison sentence.
In other crimes, the judges could not condemn the accused to more than half of the maximum penalty that they could otherwise have received. People in prison could also apply for an order of magnitude according to the rules if the law ultimately becomes the law.
Several district prosecutors were originally against the law and contacted their representatives to oppose him when the house was right about it. But the public prosecutor's office took a neutral attitude after gaining some changes. For example, the minimum penalty that a judge could impose on the original law could impose if he found that domestic abuse has contributed to a crime.
According to the Georgia Coalition against domestic violence, between 74% and 95% of the detained women survived domestic abuse or sexual violence nationwide.
“We have only received three deviating voices all the time, which sends such a strong message to the survivors in our state, that we take their experience seriously, we estimate that their voices are heard, they are safe and that people take care of seeing actual justice and healing,” said Ellie Williams, legal director with the coalition of Georgia against domestic violence.
