Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Research Blogs -> New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

Legal Research

: New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

Law Addresses Domestic Violence, Traffic Death Protocols

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News, May 21, 2008

"Jennifer Magnano fled Connecticut and her estranged

husband in 2007. When she returned for a custody

hearing months later, her husband shot her to death

and killed himself. With two of Magnano's children

looking on, Gov. M. Jodi Rell held a bill-signing

ceremony that marked the passage of a law prompted

by Magnano's death, reports the Hartford Courant. The

new law will allow state courts to conduct custody

hearing by video conference. 'It could have saved her

life,'  Rell said of the new law.

The law also includes a provision prompted by

another death - a traffic accident that killed 20-year-

old Michelle Saccoccio in June 2006. Enfield police

notified Saccoccio's mother that Michelle had been

killed in a traffic accident out of town, but provided her

with no other details. Ava Saccoccio-Hill said she

struggled for days to learn more about her daughter's

death, including the whereabouts of her body. The

confusion denied her a chance to view her daughter's

body the night of the accident, she said. The law

establishes protocols for how police are to notify

families of fatalities."

Hartford Courant - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001mRQj09q2xKYWkxJHME2Dxyz_h8y14aONuzgkBPzWt6no66JbVdnlKX9OMnufIEm4o2DCNZVJjq8aFruI3WiYfIeaLfGta5H0WuBTfE8Aor0FzNKDs907ZUPFp5jQzIKwtE6yy82pXsTlcpZbxoTssj10YnrEqgXvwtIT7qzORYfsnS--ivDIis1Tt_t5FAAy

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on May 21, 2008 (boomark / email).