Silent Witness Ceremony honors 2017 Victims of Domestic Violence

On Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson led participants through the 21st annual Silent Witness Domestic Violence ceremony that was held on the south steps of the State House in Columbia. During the solemn ceremony, Wilson called the names of 29 women and 11 men from across the state who lost their lives as the result of domestic violence in the previous year. Victims’ family members, friends, or volunteers carried a life-sized silhouette representing the victim to the State House steps as a bell was rung for each victim. An additional 41st silhouette represented the potential unknown victims. “Every year we commemorate the lives that we lost to domestic violence and we hope that, at some point, we won’t have to be here. Unfortunately, this is a cycle of violence that’s gone on for too long in our state and in our nation. We’ve taken steps to strengthen our laws and also to try to prevent this tragic crime. We are seeing some improvements, but we’ve got a long way to go to reach zero,” Wilson said. Domestic violence survivors, officials and victims’ advocates made special remarks to highlight the problem of violence against women. The attorney general has taken, and continues to take, steps to reduce domestic violence. That includes a 2015 law that has shown a marked improvement in how we handle domestic violence cases. The law provided funding for local solicitors to hire prosecutors to handle domestic violence cases, instead of having to rely on local police and deputies to prosecute those cases against experienced defense attorneys. The law created new tiers of domestic violence within the law, so abusers are now sentenced based on the severity of their crimes instead of just whether they’re first or second or third offenses. It also takes into account aggravating factors like whether any children were in the home and witnessed the abuse. The new law allows victims to get permanent restraining orders against their abusers, instead of temporary ones, and it put new restrictions on abusers’ ability to own guns. The attorney general will also support bills next year to further reduce domestic violence, like a bill to make victims’ addresses confidential, to make it harder for an abuser or a stalker to find someone. Another bill would create the crime of strangulation, since many domestic abusers strangle their victims. The Attorney General’s Office has also conducted training in all 46 counties for students and community groups on recognizing abuse, stalking, and dating violence, as well as training for law enforcement, prosecutors, victims’ advocates and judges on how to handle these cases and how to better help victims.