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Legislation Strengthens Stalking Prosecution

WCADVSA

A bill strengthening how stalking offenders are prosecuted and sentenced is moving through the Wyoming legislature.

 

But Tara Muir, Public Policy Director with the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said the bill has met debate every step of the way. She said lawmakers have been caught up on whether a prosecutor has to prove a victim suffered a substantial amount of fear. Muir added most states are moving towards an objective test that focuses on the behavior of the perpetrator.

 

“With an objective test we don’t have to put the victim on the witness stand to prove there’s some kind of substantial fear or damages or anything,” said Muir. “This is a criminal case. There is no other crime where you have to prove the victim was actually afraid. We don’t have to prove a banker was afraid [in a robbery]. But in a stalking case we seem to focus on that in Wyoming.”  

 

Muir said the House Judiciary Committee strengthened the bill by taking out the language referencing substantial fear. It passed Committee of the Whole and is now up for a second reading in the House.

Tennessee -- despite what the name might make you think -- was born and raised in the Northeast. She most recently called Vermont home. For the last 15 years she's been making radio -- as a youth radio educator, documentary producer, and now reporter. Her work has aired on Reveal, The Heart, LatinoUSA, Across Women's Lives from PRI, and American RadioWorks. One of her ongoing creative projects is co-producing Wage/Working (a jukebox-based oral history project about workers and income inequality). When she's not reporting, Tennessee likes to go on exploratory running adventures with her mutt Murray.

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