{"id":12356,"date":"2015-10-30T09:58:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T13:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=12356"},"modified":"2015-10-30T09:58:43","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T13:58:43","slug":"corbin-bill-would-close-strangulation-loophole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=12356","title":{"rendered":"Corbin bill would close strangulation loophole"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"corbin-headshot-good\"<\/a>

State Rep. Becky Corbin<\/p><\/div>\n

Flanked by fellow legislators, top prosecutors from across the state, and victims\u2019 rights advocates, Rep. Becky Corbin (R-Chester) today held a news conference at the Capitol to urge passage of legislation she has introduced that would make strangulation a felony in Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

House Bill 1581 would close a loophole in state law that has allowed some domestic abusers to escape prosecution. Currently, strangulation does not neatly fit into existing criminal categories in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 The result is that perpetrators of strangulation are often faced only with low-level misdemeanors that do not reflect the serious nature of their crime<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically, the Corbin bill would define criminal strangulation as \u201cknowingly or intentionally impeding the breathing or circulation of blood of another person by applying pressure to the throat or neck, or blocking the nose and mouth of a person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Corbin, who served as a commissioner with the Brandywine Regional Police in Chester County prior to her tenure in the Legislature, said House Bill 1581 would give law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to bring domestic abusers to justice who have otherwise evaded prosecution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn individual can be choked within an inch of her or his life, and in most instances, it is her life, with very few \u2013 if any \u2013 visible markers,\u201d said Corbin.\u00a0 \u201cWhen police or paramedics arrive and find a victim conscious and alert, it is sometimes assumed that the assault must not have been that serious.\u00a0 In reality, however, that individual may have been only seconds from death \u2013 nearly murdered.\u00a0 This bill would bring Pennsylvania law into line with those in 35 other states, recognizing the severity of this violent crime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStrangulation is a common and dangerous means of assault in domestic violence cases, and a known risk factor for homicide,\u201d said Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) Executive Director Peg J. Dierkers. \u201cRep. Corbin\u2019s bill will, if implemented,\u00a0 give law enforcement and our criminal justice system the tools they need to hold perpetrators of this crime accountable.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the PCADV, there were 141 domestic violence-related fatalities in Pennsylvania last year; of the 97 victims killed, six were strangled.\u00a0\u00a0 Additionally, the coalition announced that one study indicates the odds of becoming a homicide victim increase by 800 percent for women who had been strangled by their partner. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The news conference was held this week in recognition that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information, please visit www.RepCorbin.com<\/i><\/span><\/a> or www.Facebook.com\/RepCorbin<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flanked by fellow legislators, top prosecutors from across the state, and victims\u2019 rights advocates, Rep. Becky Corbin (R-Chester) today held a news conference at the Capitol to urge passage of legislation she has introduced that would make strangulation a felony in Pennsylvania. House Bill 1581 would close a loophole in state law that has allowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6574,3186,6573],"class_list":["post-12356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-state-rep-becky-corbin","tag-strangulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}