(Columbia) Oct. 1, 2003 - For October's National
Domestic Violence Awareness Month the South Carolina
Attorney General's office on Wednesday hosted a ceremony
to honor the memory of women who lost their lives to
domestic violence in South Carolina
Attorney General Henry McMaster led the somber Silent
Witness ceremony on the Statehouse steps. He read the names
of 30 South Carolina women who lost their lives
last year to domestic violence.
A bell chimed every nine seconds, marking how often
the FBI says a woman is beaten in the United States.
Behind McMaster family members and friends
placed 31 red silhouettes representing each of the
women, plus one in honor of unknown victims. The
line stretched the length of the Statehouse steps.
Marcia Smith says her 39-year-old sister was a
kind-hearted person. Sharon Clark, and Eau Claire
graduate, was beaten to death with a baseball bat, "It
was a very senseless killing. It could have been
prevented. ... I wish that everyone would do all that
they can to ... stop these senseless killings for all of
our mothers and sisters, daughters and granddaughters."
Marcia says she has a wall of pictures in memory of
her sister, "She'll never be forgotten."
The ceremony took place less than a week after a
national report showed South Carolina topped the nation
in the rate of men killing women in 2001. The Violence
Policy Center report, When
Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2001 Homicide
Data" (.pdf), found 64 women were killed by
men in the Palmetto State, a rate of 3.15 per 100,000.
South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Director Vicki Bourus says more needs to be done. Bouris
wants fatality review teams, "The fatality review team
would examine every homicide to look at ways that women
may have fallen through the cracks." She says South
Carolina is one of a handful of states that hasn't
started this process.
She praised McMaster and lawmakers for taking steps
like providing free lawyers to prosecute domestic
violence cases in magistrate courts.
According to the governor's office, South Carolina
has ranked first, third or fifth in the nation the past
three years in homicides resulting from domestic
violence incidents.
Reporting by Megan
Hughes
Updated 6:46pm by BrettWitt
