Macon Reporter

In a 112-0 vote, the state House of Representatives recently approved legislation creating a commission charged with reviewing deaths from domestic violence, as well as a fatality review team within each judicial district.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur), recently posted to his official Facebook page about the significance of House Bill 3161 and the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission it would create.

“This commission will review domestic violence homicides so we can develop better strategies to help prevent these tragic deaths,” Caulkins said in his post.

According to recent reporting by WREX, in Rockford, approximately half of all violent crimes in the community are related to domestic violence, and those are just the reported incidents.  

Jennifer Cacciapaglia, the manager of Rockford's Mayor's Office on Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking, worked for years with state Rep. Maurice A. West, II (D-Rockford) on writing the legislation that recently passed, WREX reported. The objective is to figure out where the holes are in the system and what could be done to prevent future tragedies.

At the local level, the Regional Domestic Violence Fatality Review Teams would be appointed by the commission, according to the bill text. One would be established for each judicial circuit, and each would include the state’s attorney or assistant state’s attorney, a criminal defense lawyer, a coroner or medical examiner, a member of law enforcement, a social services provider specializing in domestic violence, among others,

Each team would also have people from the fields of education, physical medicine, mental health and law, according to the bill text.