With as many as one in 10 women the victim of nonfatal strangulation by an intimate partner, Rep. Dan Griffey, R-Allyn, has proposed strengthening laws against nonfatal strangulation.
In a Jan. 18 news release, Griffey said he was inspired after talking to a woman who was abused by her husband for seven years.
“I won’t share the name of this woman to protect her identity, but over the interim I saw the damage the controlling and abusive relationship she had been in for years had done to her,” Griffey said. “Unfortunately, I also saw her endure the shameless victim blaming that is so common in domestic violence and sexual assault cases when her husband claimed in court that she consented to repeatedly being strangled during sex.”
According to Griffey, strangulation is assault in the second degree, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Under House Bill 2395, an abuser would no longer be able to claim the victim consented to the act.
“Right now, those trying to escape domestic violence and domestic violence/sexual assault situations are already behind the eight ball when they get to the court. Our legal system gives more weight to the testimony of others over that of the survivors,” Griffey said.
Victims of domestic violence who have faced nonfatal strangulation are eight times more likely to be the victim of homicide. Griffey’s bill, which has bipartisan support, was referred to the Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry committee.
“As a domestic violence survivor who has been working on domestic violence homicide prevention in the legislature, one of the most glaring facts is the predictive correlation between a prior act of strangulation and future intimate partner homicide,” Rep. Lauren Davis, D-Shoreline, said in a press release. “I am so grateful for my dear friend and colleague across the aisle for his courage, leadership, and advocacy on behalf of survivors like me.”
Griffey has previously advocated for sexual assault survivors while in the legislature, including 2019 legislation that extended or ended the statute of limitation on several sex crimes, including those against children.
“I want to be clear this bill is not about government coming into the bedrooms of the people of Washington state,” Griffey said. “This bill is to protect those in domestic violence or other abusive situations who are subjected to this horrific act as a way for the abuser to feel powerful or to have control over them.”
