SC is only state without specific crimes for strangulation. A bill aims to change that.

COLUMBIA— Strangulation is among the most common type of abuse in domestic violence situations. Yet, South Carolina is the only state without specific penalties for it.

A Senate proposal seeks to change that.

Intentionally restricting someone’s ability to breathe would be punishable by three to 10 years in prison under the proposal that advanced unanimously Tuesday to the Senate floor. Penalties would climb as high as 20 years in prison when someone uses a weapon, violates a restraining order or has a prior strangulation conviction.

If passed in the Senate, the bill would still have to go through the legislative process in the House. Meanwhile only five legislative days remain in the first year of the two-year session.

When it was her turn to testify, Lauren Moose, a forensic nurse examiner at McLeod Health in Florence, asked a Senate panel to set a timer for 2 ½ minutes and stay silent. That’s the amount of time it takes to kill someone by strangling them, she explained.

“Think about somebody sitting there, literally watching somebody’s life exit their hands,” she said.

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The Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention says between 68% and 80% of abused women will experience “near-fatal strangulation.”

And the likelihood of being killed by your partner is 10 times higher if they’ve strangled you, the National Domestic Violence Hotline says on its website.

South Carolina has a long history of domestic violence, particularly against women.

For a quarter century, the state was consistently in the top 10 nationally in the murder rate for women killed by men, according to the Violence Policy Center. While the center no longer rates states, South Carolina still outpaced the national rate. In 2022, the most recent year of data available, 56 female victims were killed by men in the state.

The state still has the sixth-highest rate of domestic violence in the country, according to Break the Cycle, a nonprofit dedicated to helping survivors of domestic violence.

A senator on the committee said he’s seen what strangulation can do firsthand.

Sen. Ed Sutton, D-Charleston, said his cousin was the victim of domestic violence in which her abuser strangled her. After the attack, she continued to have long-term breathing issues. Tori Burke died in 2021, a year later, after contracting COVID-19, leaving behind two daughters.

“This is a pretty awful crime and a pretty awful thing for a family to go through,” he said.

Still, others questioned whether the law was necessary, arguing these crimes already fall under assault.

Freshman Sen. JD Chaplin said he worries the bill is excessive.

“Why do we need something for strangulation?” the Hartsville Republican asked.

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Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said he supported “the overall context of protecting domestic violence victims and anyone else from strangulation” but wanted to know whether it would affect police trying to restrain a suspect.

The bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Brian Adams, said strangulation tends to be more violent than a typical assault.

Plus, the state Legislature already passed a law in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in Minnesota, the Goose Creek Republican reminded his fellow senators. That law banning the use of chokeholds except in a situation where deadly force would be reasonable went into effect on New Years Day 2023.

The proposed strangulation charge would actually help law enforcement, according to Adams, who is a retired police officer.

Cases involving strangulation tend to result in either low or medium-level assault charges, Brian Bennett, a retired officer of the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, told the SC Daily Gazette.

“No law for strangulation means it can be minimized,” said Bennett, who has been advocating for strangulation laws for a decade.

The bill would make strangulation a felony with significant prison time, which Bennett said better fits a crime where the effects tend to be long-lasting. It also would make it easier to track how prevalent the crime is in the state.

There have been multiple bills filed in recent years to create strangulation charges, including a House proposal filed back in December before this year’s session. None have gotten significant traction. Bennett has begged legislators to consider each one, with no success. Yet, he’s felt the pleas slowly create awareness within the Statehouse, he said.

“I think they are more receptive than they were in the past,” he said. “It’s like every session we gain ground.”