HB386 Summary

• Clarifies definitions of domestic violence relationships including dating relationships and household members, specifying that household members exclude non-romantic or non-intimate co-residents.

• Establishes enhanced penalties for domestic violence offenses when a protection order is violated, including doubled minimum sentences and minimum imprisonment terms ranging from 30 days to 120 days for repeat violations.

• Creates the crime of domestic violence by strangulation or suffocation as a Class B felony, with specific definitions of strangulation (closure or compression of neck blood vessels or air passages) and suffocation (deprivation of air or inhalation of toxic gases).

• Requires law enforcement to provide victims with a standard form notice of legal rights and remedies, mandates arrest without warrant for violations of protection orders based on probable cause, and establishes that defendants must be held in custody and brought before court within 48 hours.

• Prohibits mutual protection orders and requires separate orders with specific directives; adds $50 fine for protection order violations deposited in the Domestic Violence Trust Fund; repeals Section 13A-6-139.1.