Early Thursday, Ohio lawmakers passed a major criminal justice overhaul. Governor Mike Dewine signs SB 288.
It targets driving while texting, underage drinking, and prisoner rehabilitation.
The 1,700 pages of Senate Bill 90 criminalised strangulation in Ohio. Domestic violence survivors and organisations have wanted it for years.
Ohio Lacks Suffocating Laws
“We’re glad and happy that so many of the policies we’ve been following and pushing for years have been reintroduced and approved as of last night. “We’re celebrating today,” said Ohio Domestic Violence Network Maria York.
Domestic violence survivor and activist Jess Patz anticipated Thursday’s passing. “You’ve felt validated for almost 8 years,” she said.
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She spoke to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019 after the strangulation measure failed.
Last month, she and Angelia Miller, her ex-second husband’s wife, visited with News 5 to push lawmakers to act.
“That’s part of why I reached out to Angie and asked her to share our story together for the first time,” she said.
The two described how their assailant moved from strangling Patz to nearly killing Miller. 20 years for Miller’s abuse.
November was Her Near-Death Story
Belt strangled him. “He was sitting on top of me and began pounding me and smashed my nose and cheek bone and then he started sexually assaulting me,” Miller said.
Strangled women are 750% more likely to be murdered by their partners, and a strangler is likely to do it again.
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“My ex-husband regularly was directly in front of my face, glaring me down in the eyes while he strangled me and that stare, that expression will never leave me,” Patz said. “No physical abuse is justified, but the recurring thought when someone is trying to stop you from breathing is ‘you’re trying to kill me. I’m dying.”
May claimed Alyssa Pinardo. Brunswick senior. Boyfriend murdered her.
Pinardo said he supports domestic abuse after her death. He wants to publicise dangerous signs.
Source: https://www.news5cleveland.com/