In a key vote Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a criminal domestic violence bill calling for mandatory minimum sentences and increased fines.

Victims advocates were pleased with the vote, predicting afterward the bill would pass the full Senate by next week.

“The Senate Judiciary Committee is usually the biggest hurdle,” said Vicki Bourus, director of the S.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

The bill, which has passed the House unanimously, would impose a minimum fine of $1,000 or 30 days in jail for first offenses.

It also would impose mandatory minimum sentences of 30 days for second offenses, and one year for third and subsequent offenses and one year for criminal domestic violence of a high and an aggravated nature.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, unsuccessfully offered an amendment that would have eliminated minimum sentences for second offenses.

He said mandatory minimums in those cases would prevent judges from distinguishing between a “plate-throwing incident and a wife batterer.”

“You will end up with nobody pleading guilty,” he said.

But Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, chairman of a Judiciary subcommittee that approved the bill last week, said second offenders “ought to go to jail.”

“How many bites at the apple do you want to give these people?” said Laura Hudson, spokeswoman for the S.C. Victim Assistance Network.

Under the bill, Hudson said, first-time offenders still could have their charges dropped if they successfully completed a batterer’s treatment program.