(Columbia) April 29, 2005 - The new criminal domestic violence bill has come to a screeching halt in the House.

Comments by Representative John Graham Altman about domestic violence victims sent thousands of South Carolinians into a tailspin of outrage. The House then drafted a new, tougher criminal domestic violence bill that they hoped would cruise to a vote. But it's stalled Thursday night because of one lawmaker's objections.

Laura Hudson, who speaks up for crime victims, is angry, "I was hoping to have a criminal domestic violence bill come out of the House and to get to third reading so it would cross over to the Senate by the May first deadline."

She's telling other victim advocates that won't be. On the House floor, proposed amendments slowed the bill down.

Representative Todd Rutherford (D-Richland) put in a series of amendments and there was so much amendment talk, the House ran out of time to vote for the bill.

Hudson is not happy with the delay, "I am so disappointed and so angry at Mr. Rutherford because I think it's nothing but wallet thinking on his part. He's a defense attorney. And the amendments he had to put up had to do with expunging records and trying to plea bargain these pieces down to lower offenses."

Rutherford denies trying to kill the bill, but says it would make it tougher to get convictions, "What we need to make sure happens is that people who are guilty of criminal domestic violence get a strike, that they get a conviction on their record that somebody can mark them as a wife beater or as a husband beater, and you cannot do that under this current bill."

Hudson is not convinced of Rutherford's motives, "So I guess he is just continuing his fight for the batterer in South Carolina. We really need someone to stand up for criminal domestic violence offenders."

But Rutherford says, "I don't think there is a single person in the legislature, including John Graham Altman, who wants batterers to go free. What we are dealing with is a continuing cycle of criminal domestic violence."

If the bill passes the House after May first, it needs a two thirds vote to pass the Senate, and it may not be smooth sailing there. Senator Darrell Jackson (D-Richland) says, "My guess is that it may not pass this year and we may come back at the beginning of the session next year to actually pass it. However, no one in the Senate will try to do to the bill what Representative Altman did in the House."

Speaker David Willkins says he was disappointed they weren't able to pass it Thursday, but that they'll take it up Tuesday, and he's confident they'll get through the amendments and pass it next week.

Reported by Jennifer Miskewicz
Updated 8:38am by Chantelle Janelle