District Attorney Walt Merrell stated after Godwin’s plea that, “this is a landmark for Covington County. Women have suffered too long at the hands of abusive men, and until the passage of this law, they suffered at the hands of a legal system that failed them due to this loop hole. No more. Women deserve equal rights under the law and we are going to give them equal protection in the courtroom.”
Godwin was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
The National Strangulation Training Institute was recently highlighted in the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on Indian Country Accomplishments, 2009-Present. The report highlights the partnership between the National Indian Country Training Initiative, an initiative of the USDoJ, and the NSTI to provide training on strangulation and suffocation crimes to 17 tribes, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For the full report, click here.