In new effort, Jackson County prosecutor will intervene with abusers before they kill
The Jackson County prosecutor is launching an initiative to stop domestic violence-related homicides by intervening with abusers before they kill.
The effort was spurred in part by the work of Star columnist Melinda Henneberger highlighting the death of a woman who was killed by her estranged husband after repeatedly asking police for help.
The new initiative in Jackson County is modeled after a national effort called Intimate Partner Violence Intervention, which features a multi-tier focused deterrence model.
It identifies and targets what Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker calls “the worst of the worst,” abusers and provides several ways to get them off the streets.
“The focus is on the offender and why the offender harms people. Why does the offender abuse?” Baker said.
“It is not on the victim. We are trying to change some folks’ thinking about not being so victim-centric.”
Nationally, between 40 to 50 percent of female homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners.
Tabitha Birdsong was one of them, according to police.
Birdsong reportedly had an order of protection folded in her back pocket when police found her body in November near Roanoke Park at 36th Street and Madison Avenue in Kansas City.
Prosecutors charged 42-year-old Gene Birdsong of Kansas City, Kansas, with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
After Tabitha Birdsong was killed, family and friends told investigators there was a history of physical abuse in her relationship with Gene Birdsong.
The couple was married in 2009, according to Johnson County court records, and had a daughter born in 2013.
Gene Birdsong was convicted in 2009 and 2010 of domestic battery against Tabitha Birdsong.
Henneberger found that Gene Birdsong had been arrested dozens of times for hurting Birdsong. There were many opportunities to save her.
“To say the system failed her is a gross understatement,” Henneberger said. “This was a case that could only end one way.”
The criminal justice system too often puts it on victims to come forward and share their experiences of being abused.
Baker said the Birdsong case “was such a failing by our system, such a disappointing failure by our system.
“We have to do something else; we have to figure this out.”
In Jackson County’s version of the Intimate Partner Violence Intervention initiative, authorities will identify unrelated crimes committed by the offender as a way to put them in jail.
Other efforts include requiring offenders to attend “call-in” meetings where they speak directly to authorities and those who work with domestic violence victims.
A third layer calls for a detective to speak directly to offenders and give them a “face-to-face deterrent message,” explaining the legal consequences if they continue their abusive behavior.
Offenders may also receive a letter saying they are being closely monitored.
“This will try to change the community norm about his behavior,” Baker said. “If you can take more focus off the victim then you take a whole hell of a lot of pressure off your victim to fail to cooperate with their case.”
The program is already in place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in Henderson County, South Carolina, and in High Point, North Carolina. Authorities with the North Carolina program cited a drop in the number of intimate partner homicides, domestic violence injuries and re-offenders.
It is extremely difficult for a victim to leave an abusive situation and then have the willingness to testify against their abusers in open court, said David M. Kennedy, a professor of criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
“The only way we can make you safe is for you to effectively go into witness protection, which is something we do for Mafia hitmen, not for housewives,” Kennedy said during a visit this week in Kansas City.
Kennedy said he has been telling Tabitha Birdsong’s story all over the country.
Henneberger’s work in The Star “brought all that out in a crystalline way,” Kennedy said. “Your coverage said, ‘She did everything that was asked of her.’”
Baker said her office met this week with representatives from domestic violence shelters, several police departments and municipal court officials to discuss the program. An assistant county prosecutor in her office is tasked with creating a working group to further develop it.
“We will find a way to get them (offenders) off the streets to make sure that our case is not dependent on the victim to carry it through to get justice,” Baker said.
“We will find justice through other means.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2019 at 2:58 PM.
