Last June, Nicholas Holden was sentenced to 16 years for the murder of his girlfriend Tina Stewart.
Since then, Tina’s uncle Don Estes has been working tirelessly to pass a bill in his niece’s name, so no other family would have to go through what they did.
The proposed bill, also known as “Tina’s Law”, would hold those facing domestic violence charges accountable, creating a registry where those convicted could be looked up in a database similar to sex offenders.
Sponsored by Kennewick Representative Brad Klippert, the bill would make it easy for everyone to find those convicted of domestic violence.
Then yesterday, Don learned that not only wasn’t the bill voted on, it didn’t even make it out of committee in the state House of Representatives.
“It was kind of devestating,” Estes said. “To be honest I didn’t expect it to not make it out of the committee. It was heartbreaking, we put a lot of effort into getting this passed through the house.”
Representative Klippert echoed those thoughts.
The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence actually testified against the proposed law because of the unintended negative consequences they believe it would have on victim safety saying: “Due to the relationship between a victim and offender in domestic violence cases, publicizing an abuser’s name would often lead to the identification of the victim as well. WSCADV and its national colleagues have heard from survivors of abuse that concerns for their privacy can result in a decision to not reach out for help, and this makes them less safe.”
According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, across the country, there are 24 victims of domestic abuse every minute. That’s 12 million men and women every year.
Last year there were 55 domestic related deaths here in Washington.
Calling this a setback, Don says he won’t stop
“We’re not done,” said Estes. “The only thing this is going to do is make us stronger.”
