Attorney general details Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission recommendations, urges study of firearm surrender and statewide lethality assessments

The attorney general told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 5 that the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission's report for 2023 recommends a study of compliance with firearm surrender in relief-from-abuse cases, two regional victim-services positions, explicit court authority to require domestic-violence accountability programming in final relief-from-abuse orders, and statewide use of a lethality-assessment tool.

The report matters, the attorney general said, because domestic-violence–related incidents account for a large share of Vermont homicides and reducing those deaths would lower the state homicide rate. "The existence of a firearm in a home dramatically increases the lethality potential in that domestic violence situation," the attorney general said. She told the committee that the commission's recommendations are intended to provide lawmakers with preworked, cross‑stakeholder proposals. "Virtually every single recommendation that the commission made ... was adopted or made into law" in the 2023 session, she added.

The commission is a legislatively created, 17‑member panel that reviews fatalities that may be related to domestic violence and issues recommendations to the legislature, the judiciary and the governor. The attorney general said the commission examines cases identified from the…