NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Tennessee’s first ever lifetime order of protection has been granted.
Fittingly, the woman who fought for the law was the first person given the lifetime order of protection.
Nikki Goeser’s beloved husband Ben was literally assassinated by a deranged man who was stalking the married woman.
What most people don’t realize is that victims like Goeser have to renew their order every year.
Nikki Goeser’s tragedy led her to be also a strong Second Amendment advocate. She had a concealed handgun permit the night of her husband’s murder, but they were in a Gun Free Zone so she followed the law and always wondered if things would have been different if the GFZ was not active. The killer simply ignored the law and murdered her husband.
And I do believe this law is right. It is an unnecessary punishment for a victim to yearly relive in front of a judge the events that led to the need to obtain that order.
May this bring a little bit of peace to her and other victims.
Hold up that piece of paper and let someone shoot it, see how great it “protects” you…. Gfz work wonders dont they?? Nice to not have to renew it. Wondering if other states will follow.
And we agree that as for true protection from danger, it is not worth crap, but we also need to set a legal paper trail in case the things go South. You never know if a less-than-friendly prosecutor will use a lack of protection order against a woman who was forced to defend herself against a known bad player: “If you were truly in fear for your life, why you didn’t bother to renew the protection order?”
And you know there are scum like that in D.A’s offices.
And the law of unintended consequences says that the second and third and the next five hundred will get it and there by keep their accused on the prohibited person list forever. Or get them red flagged.
If she needs a protective order against her husband murderer there is something else really wrong. Why isn’t the murderer in jail? Was he found not guilty?
The ability to turn a TRO into a life long deprivation of a civil rights seems to have a few issues with it.
” Was he found not guilty?”
He we will get the chance to get out on Parole. That is the issue.
I have read just a little about the law, so don’t take me too seriously, but I believe it is narrowly targeted against truly violent performers. I am still trying to get the Tennessee resources together so I can do the usually “Read The Source” thing.
If you read her story, it’s absolutely disgusting that the killer was allowed the chance to get out of prison. Some people really do need to lose rights forever.
It seems to me the biggest issue is the existence, in violation of the Constitution, of disarmed victim zones (falsely marketed as gun-free zones).
It’s time for them to be outlawed, and until they are, for them to be jury-nullified.
Nikki is a personal friend of mine. I met her less than a week after her husband was murdered because her stalked walked in to a gun free zone and shot him.
Her gun was in her car, because the law at the time said she couldn’t have it in the restaurant she and her husband were working in because the restaurant served alcohol. She came to us (The Tennessee Firearms Association) and asked to be used as a symbol to get the law changed. And we did.
So yes, she knows that the piece of paper will not protect her.
The problem here is that the guy is in prison but he’s still harassing her via mail and email. The order of protection she could get before this would last a year before she had to apply for another one, and she couldn’t get a new one until he started harassing her again.
If he violated a protection order, he’d get more time tacked on to the end of his sentence. So he would wait until the protection order expired and would start again, and stop when a new protection order was issued.
This has been going on for 10 years. He could be released in 7 years unless he gets more time tacked on.
This won’t stop him from sending letters but it will keep him in prison longer, which is a hell of a lot better than him being out of prison and her having another protection order.
It is incredie to me that a person who murdered someone in cold blood after a pattern of stalking and harrassment, then continues the harassment while in prison will have a chance to be released on parole. It is incredible that any parole board would see this behavior and approve a parole!
this protective order isn’t even needed here, this guy should never even be leaving prison!