Brynn Seidenstricker's List: Court actions

• You can get a restraining order under the Family Abuse Prevention Act
• A restraining order cannot be enforced until a copy has been legally served on the abuser. The abuser cannot be found in contempt of court for violating the order unless he or she knew there was an order

  • If the abuser claims they didn't know of the order what can do be done?
• If the police are called to make an arrest, they are required by law to do so if they have "probable cause" to believe that the restraining order has been violated. The restraining order also sets a bail, usually $5,000, for violations of the order.

  • There are still ways for the abuser to get around this. Why isn't there more strict enforcement?
• If the person is found in contempt of court, the maximum punishment could be a fine and/ or up to six months in jail. Other possible punishments could be a warning, probation, suspended sentence, or a sentence of less than the maximum.

  • Why aren't punishments more strict than this?

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• Before her death, the 30-year-old Babb had filed for divorce and moved out. She changed jobs and obtained a court order protecting her from her husband. But he kept following her.

  • even with court ordered protection, victims are still not safe.
• Michigan's new law allows judges to order domestic violence suspects to wear GPS devices--even before they go to trial. The idea is to alert victims if alleged abusers are nearby.
• But technological advances have now made it possible for the systems to issue warnings by cell phone if the offender gets too close to a specific victim.

  • What if the GPS stops working?
• Protection orders traditionally have sought to protect victims in their homes, at work or their children's school. But GPS technology now allows "zones" of protection to move with the victims if they wear a device.
• The GPS technology has limitations if there's poor cell phone coverage, and zones have to be large enough so victims can be alerted in time to react. But the systems also help police corroborate whether an offender violated a protective order.

  • If the GPS is out of range, the victim is in dire danger especially if the abuser knows where these "dead zones" are.

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• ruling that a slain woman's earlier reports to the police of her boyfriend's threats may not be used against him at his trial unless it can be shown he killed her in order to silence her as a witness.

  • How can they not say threats before are linked to the eventual murder?
• The 6th Amendment says, "In criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right...to be confronted with the witnesses against him," Scalia noted. "We decline to approve an exception to the Confrontation Clause unheard of at the time of the founding or for 200 years thereafter," he said in Giles vs. California.

  • how can you make a statement like that when the witnesses agasint him are dead because of the defendant?
• They also they feared this rule could create an "incentive to kill," since an abusive partner could not only prevent the victim from testifying, but also prevent prosecutors from using the victim's earlier reports to police. 
  

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