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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Eugene DePasquale |
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DePasquale to introduce new domestic violence legislation
HARRISBURG, Sept. 9 – State Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York, said at a York news conference today that he plans to introduce legislation regarding penalties for choking and assault by strangulation in domestic violence cases.
"My bill would create a separate offense for domestic assault by strangulation," DePasquale said. "I feel Pennsylvania should join other states who are attempting to reduce fatal domestic assaults by increasing the penalties against abusers who choke their victims. New Hampshire, Delaware, Illinois, Nevada and Wyoming recently joined 19 other states that have enacted similar legislation because of the link between strangulation and attempted murder."
Under DePasquale's legislation, if a person is found guilty of domestic assault by strangulation against a family or household member or a person with whom he or she is in a dating relationship, he or she will have committed a third degree felony. The bill is modeled after Florida’s 2007 statute making domestic assault by strangulation a third degree felony.
A 2008 study in the Journal of Emergency Medicine found that 43 percent of women who were murdered in domestic assaults and 45 percent who were victims of attempted murder had been choked in the past year by their male partners.
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