Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel Releases 15th Annual Report: “Coming Together for Safety”
On Tuesday, February 2nd, members of the Maine Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel gathered at the Statehouse to share its 15th Biennial Report, titled “Coming Together for Safety”. The report is the culmination of the Panel’s review of 20 domestic abuse homicides occurring between 2021 and 2024. Governor Janet Mills, Attorney General Aaron M. Frey, Panel Chair Deputy Attorney General Lisa Bogue, and Executive Director of Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, Francine Garland Stark gathered to share remarks.
“Domestic Violence Homicide is the culmination of years of coercive, controlling behavior that the abusive person has used to get what they want: submission by those they victimize and control over the story being told about what is happening in that relationship. While it is difficult and dangerous to separate from an abusive intimate partner, I want to emphasize that the Domestic Violence Resource Centers in Maine help thousands of people leave abusive partners every year and go on to create lives free from abuse. It is a hard journey, but there is hope and there is help.” – Francine Garland Stark, Executive Director of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence
The report highlights the Panel’s review of the cases, their circumstances, and any necessary interventions might have changed outcomes. It contains recommendations to strengthen Maine’s response to domestic abuse and prevent future deaths. The proposals span systems, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in criminal justice, legal, health care and public responses to violence based on the case analyses. Read the full report here.
Our local Domestic Violence Resource Centers are available 24/7. If you or someone you know needs help thinking about next steps, resources, and strategies to be safe, call 1-866-834-4357. Interpreters available. Deaf or Hard of Hearing? 1-800-437-1220.
Read MCEDV Executive Director Francine Garland Stark’s remarks below:
Thank you, Governor Mills, Attorney General Frey, and Deputy Attorney General Bogue. It is an honor to be here with you today. I am Francine Garland Stark, Executive Director of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence.
I begin by extending my deepest condolences to the people whose beloved children, siblings, parents, grandparents, and friends have been killed in domestic violence homicide. Each victim of domestic violence homicide is an incalculable loss to their families and to our shared community.
In each case it reviews, the members of the Homicide Review Panel are honoring the life (or lives) lost by seeking to understand what happened – not only in the moment of the homicide but in the time before. What might anyone have done to prevent this tragedy? What professional disciplines are implicated? What is our role in creating necessary changes? The Panel looks closely at each individual case but reports our work only in the aggregate out of respect for individual privacy and the dignity of each human being.
The cases reviewed during this period brought to light gaps in public safety between the time of arrest and case resolution. Defendants charged with domestic violence related crimes – even those identified as high-risk – are typically released into community during this pre-trial period with no structured supervision to ensure compliance with conditions of release. This, along with, backlogs and resource constraints prolonging the pretrial period, compromises victim safety.
The Panel’s observations and recommendations provide direction for all to participate in creating a social context in which this violence can have no place. Many of the recommendations in the report can be implemented with minimal resource investment. Others, such as upgrading systems for information sharing among law enforcement agencies and ensuring that every law enforcement agency employs or has access to support from a shared Domestic Violence Investigator, are long-standing recommendations that would require substantial investment to achieve.
New to this report is a recommendation for legislation that would require for a person convicted of homicide that leaves a child or children without one or both parents, that a percentage of income earned by the defendant while in prison would be paid as restitution to the benefit of the surviving children. In the current report period, the cases reviewed involved 14 children who lost at least 1 of their parents or primary caregivers due to homicide, incarceration, or suicide. 5 surviving children were in the home at the time the homicides occurred. Attention to long-term economic support for these surviving children is essential.
The Panel observed that in so many cases family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers were aware of domestic abuse occurring. And many provided help, while others felt helpless to do anything. There is nearly always something to be done. A good first step is calling a community-based advocacy organization – your local Domestic Violence Resource Center is available 24/7 to talk with you about what is happening and help you think about next steps, resources, and strategies to keep yourself as a bystander and the person you are worried about safe. Visit MCEDV.org for helpline numbers and more information.
Most importantly, all of us – professional responders, community, and family – must work together to create methods of accountability that center the humanity of all involved but do not minimize the harm done and potential lethality of those who choose to be abusive and violent against their intimate partners or families.
Domestic Violence Homicide is the culmination of years of coercive, controlling behavior that the abusive person has used to get what they want: submission by those they victimize and control over the story being told about what is happening in that relationship. While it is difficult and dangerous to separate from an abusive intimate partner, I want to emphasize that the Domestic Violence Resource Centers in Maine help thousands of people separate from abusive partners every year and go on to create lives free from abuse. It is a hard journey, but there is hope and there is help.
To those who are suffering domestic abuse today, I encourage you to call a Domestic Violence Resource Center for help. To those who recognize that you are doing harm to those you love, I encourage you to call one of Maine’s Certified Domestic Violence Intervention Programs and find support on a path to change. To members of the Maine State Legislature, I implore you to recognize the need for increased funding to ensure access to critically important domestic violence services. We need to increase our capacity to respond, as we see in this report, it is rare for victims of domestic violence homicide to have been working with advocates or to have a Protection from Abuse Order in place.
Maine is fortunate to have leadership for the Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel in the Office of the Attorney General and within statute. This structure has ensured access to investigative information and a high level of engagement by state agencies central to improving systemic responses to crime together with community-based advocacy and interventionists, making possible the multi-dimensional, thoughtful conversations that result in the observations and recommendations in this report.
Over the years, this report has not been a dust-collecting folio on the shelf. It has informed the improvement in Maine’s laws and their implementation, and it has been an essential reference for improved responses to domestic violence by employers, health care providers, and domestic violence advocates. Because of this panel’s work, Maine’s response to abuse is stronger today than it was 5, 10, or 20 years ago. There is still much to be done. I look forward to the day when we will have no cases to review, but until that day, I am profoundly grateful to be part of this work alongside all the thoughtful and dedicated members of the Panel and the investigators, prosecutors, and victim witness advocates who present these tragic cases for review.
Thank you.