BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A lawmaker from Alabama is looking more closely at a new law in Tennessee that protects victims of domestic abuse even more. People who break the law have to wear GPS monitors.
Representative Juandalynn Givan in the House says that her office is working on similar bills. Givan’s work is not done by himself. Domestic abuse in Alabama has had a direct effect on Susann Montgomery Clark, who is the Director of Philanthropy at St. Vincent’s Foundation/Ascension Health and United Way of Central Alabama.
The year 2019 saw the murder of her daughter Megan in a home invasion.
Montgomery-Clark has worked hard ever since to get the word out about domestic violence. She says she can’t help but think that her daughter might still be alive if this bill passed.
Montgomery-Clark says, “If Megan had that, she might have lived because she would have known he was coming.”
Rep. Juandalynn Givan of the Tennessee House says she got a lot of calls about the bill and will have a similar draft ready for the next sitting of the legislature.
“We keep up with that kind of thing going on in other states,” says Givan. “But it will also show if we are serious about domestic violence here in the state of Alabama.”
There will still be domestic abuse, she says, but this is an important step that must be taken to save lives.
Givan says, “These things we can do are safety measures that will at least give possible victims a chance to live and see another day.”
This bill, according to Montgomery-Clark, is a step in the right way.
“It gives us a lot of strength.” In domestic violence, victims are the only ones who are expected to solve the case on their own. “This is one tool in the toolbox that will hold victims accountable instead,” says Montgomery-Clark.
This week, the bill became law in Tennessee.