ATLANTIC CITY... To many who viewed the video of the N.F.L. star Ray Rice assaulting his fiancée in the elevator of a casino here, the contrast between the viciousness of his attack and the leniency of his legal punishment was both baffling and infuriating.
Rice punched his fiancée, Janay Palmer, with such force that she was knocked unconscious after her head appeared to hit a railing, and he then calmly dragged her body out of the elevator. Yet prosecutors allowed him to enter a pretrial intervention program that will spare him jail time, probation and even a criminal record if he does not commit another offense. It was an outcome that made many suspect that Rice, a wealthy athlete and a sports legend in New Jersey, was given preferential treatment.
In the criminal justice system, however, many of those who routinely handle domestic violence cases say the episode is simply a highly public example of a well-known fact: Violent domestic assaults rarely lead to jail time or serious legal consequences, especially when they involve offenders like Rice, who had no prior record. In the latest case involving allegations of abuse by an N.F.L. player, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings was indicted on Friday in a child abuse investigation.
Despite decades of increased public attention on domestic violence, many first-time assault cases are still handled as noncriminal matters across the country, legal experts say. Even in New Jersey, one of the states with the most stringent laws and court rules, offenders often walk away with little more than court-ordered counseling in the small percentage of cases that are elevated to involve felony charges, as Rice’s case was.
“For a case like this to end this way is not uncommon,” said Jane Shivas, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women. “But it certainly is unfortunate.”
In the public outcry over the Rice case, Jim McClain, the Atlantic County prosecutor, has been the target of widespread criticism for agreeing to allow Rice, who was indicted by a grand jury on felony aggravated assault charges, to enter a pretrial intervention program intended to spare nonviolent offenders the stigma of a criminal conviction. Like N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, McClain has faced calls for his resignation from critics charging that he did not take a potentially deadly case of domestic violence seriously enough.
Unlike Goodell, however, McClain was bound by legal precedent and rules in the New Jersey courts that steer domestic violence cases toward counseling programs instead of incarceration, particularly in cases like Rice’s, in which the victim preferred to reconcile rather than press charges. McClain’s office has defended his decision, and many in the New Jersey legal community agree that the outcome of the Rice case was in line with other New Jersey cases that had similar circumstances.
But consistent does not necessarily mean just, domestic violence experts say. Given the public anger about lax treatment of abusers, some advocates for domestic violence prevention and state lawmakers hope the renewed public concern will lead to stricter rules. Stephen M. Sweeney, the president of the New Jersey Senate, has asked the state attorney general to review the prosecutor’s handling of the case, and said he was also working with legal and domestic violence experts on how to revise state law and legal guidelines.
“If that’s the way the system is supposed to work,” said Sweeney, a Democrat from West Deptford, “then we need to change the system.”
Those discussions in Trenton are part of a national debate about domestic violence that has been ignited by the videotape in the Rice case. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said he would convene a summit on the problem with the aim of finding ways to give victims more protection before any attacks and more options afterward.
The number of criminal domestic attacks has fallen by two-thirds since the federal Violence Against Women Act became law two decades ago, according to federal crime statistics, but many groups for women who have been abused say there has nonetheless been an erosion of support for victims. In 2000, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the law that allowed victims to sue their abusers in federal court. About a third of all states have refused to enact legislation that would forbid perpetrators of domestic violence to own firearms. In South Carolina, where lawmakers have resisted efforts to strengthen penalties for domestic abuse, a local newspaper’s examination of the epidemic of spousal homicide this year reported that the state had more than twice as many shelters for animals as for abused women.
New Jersey is considered relatively aggressive in its attempts to address the problem, but even there, it was unusual that Rice’s case was treated as a felony assault. Many first-time domestic offenders have their cases handled in municipal court, where criminal charges can often be avoided if the victim decides not to press charges.
While state law mandates an arrest in cases in which there are visible injuries or a restraining order, there is wide latitude once a case enters the court system. Domestic violence cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute because victims are often romantically and financially bound to their attackers and are often reluctant to press charges. State legal guidelines require prosecutors to sort through emotionally charged domestic violence cases and make dispassionate, often clinical, judgments about the severity of the attack, the likelihood of a repeat offense and the wishes of the victim, who may later decline to testify.
Because Rice knocked Palmer unconscious, McClain’s office pushed for felony charges, and a grand jury indicted Rice on third-degree aggravated assault charges on May 27. Rice and Palmer were married the following day, and she later indicated that she no longer wanted to press charges.
New Jersey law allows prosecutors to pursue cases even over the victim’s objections, especially if there is other evidence available. It also advises prosecutors to weigh the victim’s feelings, as well as the likelihood of the abuser committing another attack.
But state courts also operate under a “presumption of non-incarceration” for first-time offenders in all but the most violent felonies, and conviction on third-degree assault charges rarely results in jail time. Second-degree assault charges, which are more likely to result in jail time, are usually only filed in cases involving serious injuries from a shooting, stabbing or attack resulting in the loss of a limb or organ, or in the risk of death, said Joseph A. Levin, a lawyer in Atlantic City who has represented both victims and accused abusers.
“So the choice here wasn’t between jail and pretrial intervention,” Levin said. “It was between pretrial intervention and probation.”
Critics of McClain’s decision argue that pushing for probation or conviction would have been an important step because it would have established a criminal record that could be used to prosecute Rice in case of any future assault.
Assemblywoman Gabriela M. Mosquera, vice chairwoman of the Women and Children committee, said she found the prosecutor’s actions “confounding.”
“After seeing this very graphic video of the events that had previously been reported, it’s all the more puzzling as to how the county prosecutor reached a decision that pretrial intervention was the appropriate course,” said Mosquera, a Democrat from Turnersville, in a written statement.
Inside the law enforcement system, however, there was little doubt that cases similar to Rice’s often ended in pretrial intervention even though state guidelines say the program should generally be used for nonviolent offenses. Kathy Boyle, who administers the program in Atlantic County, said the extent of the injuries and the potential impact of prosecution on Janay Palmer Rice were considered.
In an interview with a local newspaper published on Wednesday, McClain said that given the relatively minor difference between probation and pretrial intervention, he wanted to spare Palmer Rice the ordeal of dragging out the case. McClain said he also felt obligated to treat Ray Rice the same as he would any other defendant.
“Just like it is not just or fair to go easier on somebody because of who they are, neither is it fair or just to go heavier on somebody because of who they are,” McClain told The Press of Atlantic City. “I felt, and still feel, this disposition was appropriate.”
While the state attorney general will now review that decision, the state legislature has already begun making systemic changes to New Jersey’s domestic violence laws. Mosquera said Friday that she hoped to tighten restrictions on pretrial intervention and exclude most first-time offenders who commit acts of violence. But some national experts have cautioned that harsh criminal penalties like mandatory jail time have sometimes proved ineffective because they can make victims reluctant to report abuse.
Regardless of the legislative outcome, domestic violence experts hope the Rice case will help dispel the lingering belief that violent disputes between romantic partners are a private matter. Claudia Ratzlaff, executive director of the Atlantic County Women’s Center, said she was disappointed to hear that after the video set off a furor, Palmer Rice issued a statement asking the public to give her and her husband privacy in handling what she called “a family matter.”
“People used to say that about child abuse, too, but attitudes have evolved and it’s no longer considered acceptable,” said Ms. Ratzlaff, whose agency provides shelter and counseling for thousands of abused women in Atlantic County each year. “That’s what needs to happen with domestic violence, too.”
Rice punched his fiancée, Janay Palmer, with such force that she was knocked unconscious after her head appeared to hit a railing, and he then calmly dragged her body out of the elevator. Yet prosecutors allowed him to enter a pretrial intervention program that will spare him jail time, probation and even a criminal record if he does not commit another offense. It was an outcome that made many suspect that Rice, a wealthy athlete and a sports legend in New Jersey, was given preferential treatment.
In the criminal justice system, however, many of those who routinely handle domestic violence cases say the episode is simply a highly public example of a well-known fact: Violent domestic assaults rarely lead to jail time or serious legal consequences, especially when they involve offenders like Rice, who had no prior record. In the latest case involving allegations of abuse by an N.F.L. player, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings was indicted on Friday in a child abuse investigation.
Despite decades of increased public attention on domestic violence, many first-time assault cases are still handled as noncriminal matters across the country, legal experts say. Even in New Jersey, one of the states with the most stringent laws and court rules, offenders often walk away with little more than court-ordered counseling in the small percentage of cases that are elevated to involve felony charges, as Rice’s case was.
“For a case like this to end this way is not uncommon,” said Jane Shivas, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women. “But it certainly is unfortunate.”
In the public outcry over the Rice case, Jim McClain, the Atlantic County prosecutor, has been the target of widespread criticism for agreeing to allow Rice, who was indicted by a grand jury on felony aggravated assault charges, to enter a pretrial intervention program intended to spare nonviolent offenders the stigma of a criminal conviction. Like N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, McClain has faced calls for his resignation from critics charging that he did not take a potentially deadly case of domestic violence seriously enough.
Unlike Goodell, however, McClain was bound by legal precedent and rules in the New Jersey courts that steer domestic violence cases toward counseling programs instead of incarceration, particularly in cases like Rice’s, in which the victim preferred to reconcile rather than press charges. McClain’s office has defended his decision, and many in the New Jersey legal community agree that the outcome of the Rice case was in line with other New Jersey cases that had similar circumstances.
But consistent does not necessarily mean just, domestic violence experts say. Given the public anger about lax treatment of abusers, some advocates for domestic violence prevention and state lawmakers hope the renewed public concern will lead to stricter rules. Stephen M. Sweeney, the president of the New Jersey Senate, has asked the state attorney general to review the prosecutor’s handling of the case, and said he was also working with legal and domestic violence experts on how to revise state law and legal guidelines.
“If that’s the way the system is supposed to work,” said Sweeney, a Democrat from West Deptford, “then we need to change the system.”
Those discussions in Trenton are part of a national debate about domestic violence that has been ignited by the videotape in the Rice case. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said he would convene a summit on the problem with the aim of finding ways to give victims more protection before any attacks and more options afterward.
The number of criminal domestic attacks has fallen by two-thirds since the federal Violence Against Women Act became law two decades ago, according to federal crime statistics, but many groups for women who have been abused say there has nonetheless been an erosion of support for victims. In 2000, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the law that allowed victims to sue their abusers in federal court. About a third of all states have refused to enact legislation that would forbid perpetrators of domestic violence to own firearms. In South Carolina, where lawmakers have resisted efforts to strengthen penalties for domestic abuse, a local newspaper’s examination of the epidemic of spousal homicide this year reported that the state had more than twice as many shelters for animals as for abused women.
New Jersey is considered relatively aggressive in its attempts to address the problem, but even there, it was unusual that Rice’s case was treated as a felony assault. Many first-time domestic offenders have their cases handled in municipal court, where criminal charges can often be avoided if the victim decides not to press charges.
While state law mandates an arrest in cases in which there are visible injuries or a restraining order, there is wide latitude once a case enters the court system. Domestic violence cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute because victims are often romantically and financially bound to their attackers and are often reluctant to press charges. State legal guidelines require prosecutors to sort through emotionally charged domestic violence cases and make dispassionate, often clinical, judgments about the severity of the attack, the likelihood of a repeat offense and the wishes of the victim, who may later decline to testify.
Because Rice knocked Palmer unconscious, McClain’s office pushed for felony charges, and a grand jury indicted Rice on third-degree aggravated assault charges on May 27. Rice and Palmer were married the following day, and she later indicated that she no longer wanted to press charges.
New Jersey law allows prosecutors to pursue cases even over the victim’s objections, especially if there is other evidence available. It also advises prosecutors to weigh the victim’s feelings, as well as the likelihood of the abuser committing another attack.
But state courts also operate under a “presumption of non-incarceration” for first-time offenders in all but the most violent felonies, and conviction on third-degree assault charges rarely results in jail time. Second-degree assault charges, which are more likely to result in jail time, are usually only filed in cases involving serious injuries from a shooting, stabbing or attack resulting in the loss of a limb or organ, or in the risk of death, said Joseph A. Levin, a lawyer in Atlantic City who has represented both victims and accused abusers.
“So the choice here wasn’t between jail and pretrial intervention,” Levin said. “It was between pretrial intervention and probation.”
Critics of McClain’s decision argue that pushing for probation or conviction would have been an important step because it would have established a criminal record that could be used to prosecute Rice in case of any future assault.
Assemblywoman Gabriela M. Mosquera, vice chairwoman of the Women and Children committee, said she found the prosecutor’s actions “confounding.”
“After seeing this very graphic video of the events that had previously been reported, it’s all the more puzzling as to how the county prosecutor reached a decision that pretrial intervention was the appropriate course,” said Mosquera, a Democrat from Turnersville, in a written statement.
Inside the law enforcement system, however, there was little doubt that cases similar to Rice’s often ended in pretrial intervention even though state guidelines say the program should generally be used for nonviolent offenses. Kathy Boyle, who administers the program in Atlantic County, said the extent of the injuries and the potential impact of prosecution on Janay Palmer Rice were considered.
In an interview with a local newspaper published on Wednesday, McClain said that given the relatively minor difference between probation and pretrial intervention, he wanted to spare Palmer Rice the ordeal of dragging out the case. McClain said he also felt obligated to treat Ray Rice the same as he would any other defendant.
“Just like it is not just or fair to go easier on somebody because of who they are, neither is it fair or just to go heavier on somebody because of who they are,” McClain told The Press of Atlantic City. “I felt, and still feel, this disposition was appropriate.”
While the state attorney general will now review that decision, the state legislature has already begun making systemic changes to New Jersey’s domestic violence laws. Mosquera said Friday that she hoped to tighten restrictions on pretrial intervention and exclude most first-time offenders who commit acts of violence. But some national experts have cautioned that harsh criminal penalties like mandatory jail time have sometimes proved ineffective because they can make victims reluctant to report abuse.
Regardless of the legislative outcome, domestic violence experts hope the Rice case will help dispel the lingering belief that violent disputes between romantic partners are a private matter. Claudia Ratzlaff, executive director of the Atlantic County Women’s Center, said she was disappointed to hear that after the video set off a furor, Palmer Rice issued a statement asking the public to give her and her husband privacy in handling what she called “a family matter.”
“People used to say that about child abuse, too, but attitudes have evolved and it’s no longer considered acceptable,” said Ms. Ratzlaff, whose agency provides shelter and counseling for thousands of abused women in Atlantic County each year. “That’s what needs to happen with domestic violence, too.”
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