Iowa needs stronger domestic abuse laws, Branstad says

DES MOINES - Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced new initiatives Monday they hope will crack down on domestic abusers and better protect victims against the threat of violence, stalking or harassment.

'The crime of domestic violence is one of horrific brutality,” said Branstad, who was joined at a Statehouse news conference by a woman whose daughter was killed in 2009 by an estranged husband who was covered by a court-issued restraining order.

To better address domestic abuse and assault in Iowa, Branstad said he is asking the split-control Legislature this session to triple the mandatory minimum sentence for a person with a third domestic abuse assault - from one year to three years. Also, he said, offenders with a third conviction for stalking or harassment would be required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence and would be eligible for earned time off their incarceration only if they participated in treatment programs while in prison.

The proposed legislation also would seek to increase sanctions against offenders who violate protective orders, and would give courts and law enforcement officers more access to potential risks associated with a domestic abuser facing parole to better determine when electronic or GPS monitoring should be used to track offenders and bar them from zones where their victims live and work.

'Often the victims live in a state of constant fear,” said Branstad, who noted that 2,665 people where convicted of domestic abuse in Iowa last year with 71 being third-offense domestic abusers. 'By allowing this offense to go unchecked, it can create generations of abusive domestic partners who do not know how to resolve conflicts without abuse, manipulation, bullying and violence.”

Sheila Lynch said she believed her daughter, TereseAnn Lynch Moore, might be alive today had the measures being contemplated been in effect six years ago. In November 2009, Lynch's daughter died at the hands of Randall Todd Moore, who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing Lynch Moore in November 2009.

'If this bill had been in effect when my daughter was being stalked by the man she was trying to divorce, I believe with all my heart she'd still be here,” said Lynch, who lives in the central Iowa town of Nevada. 'I cannot go backwards, but I can certainly go forward. This bill takes the electronic monitoring that I was pushing for, and it goes much farther than that.”

She said the governor's proposal 'matches and exceeds everything I had hoped for” and means a lot to her in bringing respect and honor to her daughter's memory.

Roxann Ryan, acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety, called the Branstad administration proposal a 'good step forward” that will hold offenders accountable and help law enforcement use resources more effectively.

'This is a carefully crafted bill that addresses the most serious offenders in ways that are most likely to hold them accountable,” she said.

Lettie Prell, director of research for the state Department of Corrections, said the proposal is not costly because electronic monitoring runs about $3 per offender per day, and in many cases the offenders pay for the charge.