If a woman's boyfriend or husband has ever tried to strangle her, she is 10 times more likely to die from abuse than victims who haven't suffered strangulation.
In violent domestic relationships, strangulation can be a control tactic that sends a message to the victim. But even though risk statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice show such fear-inducing behavior has a high propensity to escalate, until this summer Arizona had no specific law dealing with it.
On July 30, it became a Class 4 felony to impede someone's breath or blood by either strangling them - which under the law includes non-lethal choking - or obstructing their mouth or nose.
Up until then, if someone accused a partner of strangling them, prosecutors had two options, said Deputy Pima County Attorney Nicol Green, supervisor of the office's domestic-violence unit.
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They could charge the abuser with kidnapping or aggravated assault, both crimes often difficult to prove.
Since July 30, more than 20 people have been charged under the new statute.
"Domestic violence is often about power and control, and strangulation is the ultimate way to show you've got control," Green said."
It only takes seconds to strangle someone into unconsciousness and as little as 2 1/2 minutes to kill someone, Green said.
Green noted that before the new statute, defendants could theoretically be convicted of misdemeanor assault and placed on unsupervised probation - especially if there was no bruising.
Pima County Justice of the Peace Jack Peyton presides over the county's domestic-violence court. He sees the new statute as one more step in an ever-evolving process.
Just as people became less forgiving of driving under the influence and the laws changed accordingly, domestic violence is becoming less acceptable, and the laws are reflecting it.
In addition to the strangulation statute, Peyton pointed out that legislators have passed laws, in recent years, that allow domestic-violence victims to break leases if they shared one with an abuser and that prevent authorities from deporting undocumented victims who reveal themselves by filing a domestic-violence complaint.
The Pima County Attorney's Office has also changed the way it handles domestic-violence cases.
In 2008, prosecutors began taking all felony domestic-violence cases to Peyton so he can decide if there's enough evidence to take defendants to trial. Before then, they indicted the defendants in secret grand-jury proceedings.
The beauty of preliminary hearings is, even if victims later retract their allegations during a trial or minimize their abusers' actions - or don't show up at all - their testimony from the preliminary hearings can be used, Green said.
Since preliminary hearings, by law, must be held quickly, there is less time for a victim to be influenced by economic worries, abusers' apologies and pressure from family members.
Preliminary hearings must be held within 10 days of an arrest if the suspect is still in jail or within 20 days if the suspect been released.
Prosecutors also get to meet the victims much more quickly than they would if the suspect had been indicted.
Green has also found an added benefit of the preliminary hearings - earlier plea agreements.
"Rather than roll the dice thinking they have time to influence the victim before the trial, they plead guilty," Green said.
Judges don't define success in terms of convictions, but Peyton said he believes the preliminary hearing process has been a success.
"What we've been so successful at is creating an environment in which the person alleged to be the victim can feel safe in participating free of coercion," Peyton said. "They recognize their rights are going to be protected."
In 2009, Peyton conducted 108 preliminary hearings. So far this year, he's conducted 142.
Eighty-four percent of the defendants were bound over for trial.
Peyton and Green attribute the increase in hearings to the new strangulation law, an increase in domestic-violence cases overall and repeat offenders being spotted more consistently (if someone is arrested on their third domestic violence-related charge within a seven-year period, they are charged with a felony).
The number of domestic-violence cases investigated by the Tucson Police Department between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 22, 2009, was 8,255. In 2010, the number was 8,610.
In the past two years, the Pima County Sheriff's Department investigated 4,048 and 4,378 cases, respectively.
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Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com
