There are many beginnings to legislation. Some don’t begin under the Gold Dome, but rather in a courtroom. This past session, I carried House Bill 911. HB 911 serves to strengthen and clarify strangulation prosecution under the aggravated assault statute.
Some detractors might protest the over-criminalization of society, saying there are more than enough laws on the books to govern our behavior, and that more are not needed to make us a more just society. But it was essential for our state to make this statement to abusers and bullies alike: This behavior will not be tolerated, and we recognize the seriousness of the offense.
Some background is needed: While strangulation was added to the aggravated assault statute this year, it was already a crime. Our courts had determined that hands could be deadly weapons. People have been choked to death. The use of hands to choke a victim does thereby satisfy the deadly weapon or dangerous object element of aggravated assault.
That’s not enough, though. As with any case, the state must prove intent, an essential element of any crime. In order to prove aggravated assault the prosecutor must show that the defendant intended to harm or intended to commit an act which placed another in fear of receiving a violent injury. When trying to prove an offense under the aggravated assault statute, the prosecutor must prove an intent to harm.
So why bring the legislation? Case law had established that choking or strangling someone with one’s hands is an aggravated assault, why codify the offense?
Here’s why: Too often the crime was not being prosecuted as a felony. Law enforcement officers, placed in very stressful situations requiring quick decisions, would frequently seek a warrant for a misdemeanor, often battery if the offender left red marks around the neck of the victim.
Fast-forward a few weeks or months, and the victim is sitting in the prosecuting attorney’s office, describing the incident. The victim describes their terrifying encounter, with the perpetrator looming over them, with their hands around the victim’s throat, powerless to call out or even breathe. The prosecutor recognizes the crime of aggravated assault, a felony. But the prosecutor is an assistant solicitor general, tasked with prosecuting misdemeanors; the aggravated assault is a felony, which should be handled by the district attorney’s office. So the prosecutor sends the case to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.
The assistant district attorney sees a weak case. If the proper evidence been collected at the crime scene, with follow-up photos taken of bruising and the documentation of injuries over time, it might have been winnable. Months later, however, it is no longer an easy case to prove.
The 2014 General Assembly strengthened existing law to protect citizens victimized by criminals. HB 911 supplies necessary guidance to law enforcement officers responding to calls and gathering evidence while simultaneously providing prosecutors with the necessary framework to ultimately hold perpetrators accountable.
The aggravated assault statute now clearly provides an effective tool for the prosecution of a serious offense, sending an equally clear message to bullies and abusers that Georgia will prosecute violence of this nature to the fullest extent of the law.
