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If judges issue bad rulings and people die, should the courts pass the disciplinary gavel?1/27/2022
USA Today Network January 27, 2022 NBC News' investigation found many states privately reprimand judges more than they do publicly. Out of thousands of judicial misconduct complaints filed with oversight commissions across the country between 2016 and 2020, roughly 1 percent resulted in public discipline or judge resignations, according to the investigation.
Data like that is why Lyn Schollett, the executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said she wasn't surprised the state Supreme Court tapped an internal panel to review Hall's decision to deny the protective order against Lorman. The panel included one member of the state's judicial conduct committee who has federal experience and served as president of the state bar, three judicial branch colleagues of Hall's, the administrator of the circuit courts, and a staff attorney who provides "advice and support" to circuit court judges, according to the group's final report. “It’s not objective and it wasn’t done from an outside perspective,” said Schollett. "It was a hard report for advocates to read." Concord Monitor January 24. 2022 Amanda Grady-Sexton, Director of Public Affairs for New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said she feels that the imbalance of the interests of crime victims against the rights of the accused in New Hampshire’s justice system regularly results in re-traumatization. She said that “if the goal of a criminal trial is to seek truth and determine the accused’s innocence or guilt, the New Hampshire legislature should support evidence-based efforts that help victims and witnesses provide clear and coherent testimony, including the use of a discreet service animal in the courtroom.”
Concord Monitor January 22,2022 A re-introduced House Bill would criminalize the practice of sending explicit images of oneself to another person without the recipient’s consent, making the practice of “cyber-flashing” a misdemeanor.
Lyn Schollett, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, testified in support of HB 1388 on Friday. Schollett said the Coalition worked to develop the newest bill’s language. She described the bill as solving a “loophole” in the law that punishes the sending of unwanted sexual images to kids under 16, but not to older teens or adults. “We believe that it's appropriate for this to be an offense, but at a lower level than it would be if the images were sent to a minor,” she said. “Receiving an unsolicited sexual image is disarming. It can be frightening, it can be alarming, and it also is often used by abusers as part of the grooming process,” Schollett said. Grooming refers the process of slowly gaining the trust of a victim as a precursor to abuse. Concord Monitor January 22, 2022 New Hampshire violence prevention advocates like Pamela Keilig, public policy specialist for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, say the bill, HB1533, could have a significant impact on preventing sexual violence in New Hampshire, where one in four women and one in 20 men have reported being sexually assaulted, according to the coalition.
“Because of this education, students have come to understand what healthy relationship dynamics look like and learn how to identify unhealthy relationships and grooming behaviors, all important skills that will have long-lasting impacts on their development as they grow into mature adults,” Keilig told lawmakers. “What this legislation proposes will only improve our response as a state to ending sexual violence as we continue to maximize our efforts to prevent abuse before it occurs.” Associated Press January 21, 2022 The task force, which is chaired by Supreme Court Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz, is looking at existing court “practice and procedure” in cases involving domestic violence allegations; analyzing the status of state law regarding domestic violence, including the legal definition of “abuse” and its relationship to intimate partner violence; and exploring opportunities to give victims more access to lawyers and victim advocates, among other subjects.
The group is scheduled to release its report by March 1. It includes representatives from the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, law enforcement, prosecutors, defense counsel and others. |
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