Tough domestic-abuse law under scrutiny

Missouri's new law on domestic abuse, which makes even a single slap punishable by a seven-year prison term, is generating controversy around the state. The law allows prosecutors to treat all domestic violence cases as felonies.

On one side are some prosecutors and activists against domestic abuse and advocates for abuse victims. On the other side are many defense lawyers and even some prosecutors who warn that the new law is an invitation to prosecutorial abuse.

In the first category is Cape Girardeau County's prosecuting attorney, Morley Swingle, who says he routinely files felony charges against alleged assailants.

"We have been vigorously using it for our county because it allows you to charge an assault that is normally a misdemeanor as a felony," Swingle said. "Any punch, slap, kick or hit between domestic partners under the new law can be a felony."

That way, Swingle explains, accused abusers are arrested and must post bond. In posting bond, the suspect typically must agree to stay away from the abused partner.

"It provides a measure of immediate protection for the victim," Swingle says.

The goal, he says, is to break the cycle of violence that can leave the victim -- usually, but not always, a female -- in fear of her life.

This is all well and good as long as prosecutors weigh carefully the decision to charge either as misdemeanor or felony. Few characteristics are more vital for the sound discharge of a prosecutor's duties than the all-important matter of prosecutorial discretion: the sound judgment as to exactly which charge to bring or -- equally important -- when not to file charges at all or to go with the lesser charge.

No less a prosecutorial leader in our state than Richard Callahan, Cole County prosecutor and a longtime director of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, says the new law coerces people to plead guilty to lesser charges in many cases. Defense attorneys say it is flat-out wrong to have a state law that allows prosecutors to pursue felony charges in cases involving minor assaults.

These most assuredly aren't trivial concerns. Vital protections for the accused are involved, and it isn't for nothing that our legal system requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt following a trial with many safeguards.

We trust that if the concerns about the rights of the accused are borne out in experience, the legislature will be able to address them in changing the law.