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couple of days after he was released on bail after choking her. Jonathan Charbonneau killed himself after shooting his wife. The state's law treats attempted strangulation as a second-degree felony, carries a sentence of three and a half to seven years in prison and allows police to detain suspected abusers to keep violence from escalating.
• "If we had the strangulation law at that time, I believe there would have been a cooling-down period, and a lot of this may not have happened," said Melissa

Charbonneau's father, John Cantin.
• Some laws don't require bodily injury -- only that the attacker intended to cause harm or induce fear. That may ease prosecutors' burden, but advocates acknowledge that strengthening penalties alone won't make cases easier to prove. They say the laws need to be paired with extensive training so that police, prosecutors and medical professionals know what to look for.
• The Family Justice Center Alliance offers free training, presentations aimed at police, court personnel and emergency responders are sponsored by hospitals and at some least police departments are spreading the message. In Rochester, N.H., for instance, a detective specializing in domestic violence trains all new officers on the topic.
• A Justice Department official involved in anti-domestic violence efforts said heightened awareness is an important first step.
• "When states get new laws about strangulation, it shines a light on it, shows the severity of the crime," said Bea Hanson, acting director of the department's Office

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