COLUMBIA - Lorie Boddie had been abused for more than seven years before she shot and killed her husband in 1992 when he came at her wielding a knife.

Back then, Boddie said, police officers in South Carolina had few guidelines for domestic violence cases. Laws in the past decade have slowly changed that and a law signed by Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday continues the state's efforts, Boddie said.

The law stiffens penalties and fines for spouse batterers.

"We lead the nation in the perpetration of these types of crimes," Sanford said. This bill "is about changing that." South Carolina has one of the highest rates in the nation in the number of women killed by men.

Boddie said stronger laws 13 years ago may have prevented her husband's death.

"I think if there were some intervention such as this, it wouldn't have happened," she said.

Boddie pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and served seven years in prison before she was released on parole.

With the new law, the minimum fine for a first conviction of domestic violence increases to $1,000 from $500, or 30 days in jail. But that can be suspended if the person completes a counseling program.

Penalties for second convictions increase to 30 days to one year in jail and up to $5,000 in fines. The current penalty is either 30 days in jail or a $500 fine.

The law takes effect Jan. 1.

The law was passed in the General Assembly after it was spiked by a House subcommittee. But the bill was quickly resuscitated after comments by Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston.

"I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them," Altman told a WIS-TV reporter as he explained why the bill needed to be tabled. "I've asked women that and they all tell me the same answer, `John Graham, you don't understand.' And I say you're right, I don't understand."