Other LanguagesProposed Legislation: Plead and Prove Domestic Violence Designation
In order to have domestic violence sentencing reform, Blakely requires the domestic violence designation be plead and proven. Today being labeled a crime of "domestic violence" does not affect punishment. Appellate courts have found the current label of domestic violence means nothing.1 Any designation change will impact misdemeanor DV prosecutions. Jurisdictions will need to plead and prove designation where before they did not need to.
The benefit of pleading and proving domestic violence is significant as history at the felony level would be given new meaning and repeat offenders would have tough sentences. There are also evidentiary advantages to pleading and proving domestic violence.
In Kitsap County, they have plead and proven domestic violence for several years, without impact on their prosecutions.2 Further, even if one fails to prove the domestic violence designation the sentences would simply revert back to the sentencing structure currently in place.
- See State v. Spencer, 128 Wn. App. 132 (I-2005); State v. Felix, 125 Wash.App. 575, 105 P.3d 427 (2005). See also State v. Clark, unpublished opinion at 127 Wash.App. 1039 (2005).
- In Pierce County, per domestic violence prosecutors Mary Robnett and Diane Clarkson, the prosecutor's office pleads domestic violence in the charging document. In District Court prosecutors prove it to the jury while in Superior Court the practice has been to ask the judge to make the finding after trial.