Savanna Puckett was a 22-year-old sheriff’s deputy in Tennessee when her former boyfriend, James Conn, shot her multiple times and set her home on fire. Conn already had a domestic assault conviction, but even Savanna — a law enforcement officer — had been unable to uncover the full history of domestic violence behind the man she was dating. Her mother has said that if Savanna had been able to look up that history, she does not believe her daughter ever would have gotten involved with him.

Savanna’s murder ultimately helped push Tennessee to create the nation’s first public domestic violence offender registry. But that protection stops at the state line.

We call on Congress to establish a centralized, publicly searchable National Domestic Violence Conviction Database that automatically receives verified conviction information from federal, state, Tribal, territorial, and local courts.

This would not be a registry that requires a convicted offender to register, report an address, check in with law enforcement, or submit personal information. Instead, the government would automatically publish qualifying domestic-violence convictions using official court records—just as criminal convictions and other public court information are already made available in many jurisdictions.

A person who has been lawfully convicted of domestic violence should be held accountable for that action. The public should not have to search through multiple courts, counties, and states—or pay private background-check companies—to find information that is already part of the public record.

Why This National Database Is Needed
Domestic-violence conviction records are currently scattered across thousands of court systems and government databases. Finding them can be difficult, expensive, or practically impossible, especially when a convicted person moves to another state.

Someone beginning a relationship may have no realistic way to discover that a potential partner has previously been convicted of domestic violence, stalking, strangulation, serious assault, or making threats against an intimate partner.

This information can be especially important before someone:

• Enters a serious relationship.
• Moves in with a partner.
• Combines finances.
• Becomes isolated from family and friends.
• Introduces a partner to their children.
• Marries or starts a family with someone.

A single national database would allow people to access verified information and make informed decisions about their safety and the safety of their children.

How the Database Would Work
Courts and authorized government agencies would be responsible for submitting and updating qualifying conviction records. When a qualifying domestic-violence conviction becomes final:

• The court would electronically transmit the conviction information to the national database.
• The responsible federal agency would verify the individual’s identity and the qualifying conviction.
• The verified information would become publicly searchable.
• Any later change—including an appeal, overturned conviction, corrected sentence, expungement, sealing, or pardon—would automatically be transmitted and reflected in the database.

The convicted person would not be required to register or update the information personally. The accuracy and maintenance of the database would be the responsibility of the courts and government agencies that hold the official records. A person’s failure to register, report an address, or personally update information would not be a separate crime because no personal registration requirement would exist.

What Information Should Be Available
The database should display only the information necessary to accurately identify the convicted person and explain the public conviction:

• Full legal name and verified aliases.
• Photograph, when legally authorized and reasonably current.
• Age or year of birth.
• State and jurisdiction where the conviction occurred.
• Qualifying offense or offenses.
• Date of conviction.
• Disposition and sentence.
• Whether the conviction involved strangulation, stalking, a weapon, serious bodily injury, sexual violence, threats to kill, abuse in the presence of a child, or repeated domestic-violence convictions.
• Current status of the conviction, including whether it is under appeal, overturned, vacated, sealed, or expunged.

The public database should not display Social Security numbers, telephone numbers, email addresses, employers, vehicle information, or other information unrelated to the conviction. It should not publish the convicted person’s exact current residential address unless that address is already required to be publicly disclosed under another law.

Why Public Access Matters
Domestic violence often involves patterns of behavior that may continue across multiple relationships and jurisdictions. When conviction records are difficult to find, a person may enter a relationship without knowing that a potential partner has a documented history of violence.

A national database could:

• Help people determine whether a potential partner has a qualifying domestic-violence conviction.
• Prevent public conviction records from becoming practically invisible when someone moves to another state.
• Allow parents and guardians to make better-informed decisions about individuals entering their children’s lives.
• Help law enforcement, courts, advocates, and service providers identify convictions across jurisdictions.
• Provide accurate information directly from government records instead of relying on rumors, social media, or incomplete private background-check services.
• Encourage people to contact a domestic-violence advocate, develop a safety plan, or reconsider a potentially dangerous relationship.

The database would not label someone based on an accusation. It would disclose a verified judicial outcome resulting from a criminal court proceeding.

Convictions Only – Not Accusations
A person must not be included because they were accused, arrested, investigated, or named in an unproven allegation. Public inclusion should generally require a final criminal conviction for a clearly defined qualifying domestic-violence offense.

The database must not treat the following as convictions:

• Arrests that did not result in a conviction.
• Dismissed or withdrawn charges.
• Acquittals.
• Unsubstantiated allegations.
• Unadjudicated police reports.
• Temporary protective orders issued without a final criminal conviction.
• Sealed or expunged convictions that the law no longer permits to be disclosed.
• This distinction protects due process while ensuring that verified public convictions remain accessible.

Safeguards for Mistaken Identity and Incorrect Information
Government databases can contain errors. Strong safeguards must be built into this system from the beginning.

• Verification before publication
  • Every record must be matched to certified court information and verified identifying information before it becomes publicly searchable.
  • A similar name or automated computer match must never be enough to add someone to the database.
• Notice to the convicted person
  • The responsible agency should provide notice before or immediately after a record becomes publicly available. That notice should identify the conviction being published and explain how to challenge an error.
  • Notice would not make the person responsible for registering. It would ensure transparency and provide an opportunity to correct inaccurate information.
• Free and accessible correction process
  • Anyone who believes they have been added by mistake must have access to a simple and free correction process.
• A person should be able to challenge:
  • Mistaken identity.
  • An incorrect photograph.
  • Incorrect conviction information.
  • A conviction belonging to another person with the same or a similar name.
  • Duplicate records.
  • A conviction that does not qualify for inclusion.
  • A conviction that has been overturned, vacated, sealed, expunged, or pardoned.
  • No one should have to hire an attorney or pay a filing fee to correct a government-created error.
• Prompt review of disputed records
  • When credible documentation shows a likely mistake, the record should be temporarily marked “Identity or Record Under Review.”
  • When there is strong evidence of mistaken identity, the record should be temporarily removed from public search results while the agency completes an expedited review.
• Clear mistakes should be corrected immediately.
• Automatic court updates: Courts should be required to automatically report when a conviction is:
  • Overturned on appeal.
  • Vacated.
  • Sealed.
  • Expunged.
  • Pardoned.
  • Corrected or amended.
  • The individual should not be responsible for discovering that the database is outdated or forcing the government to update its own records.
• Right to appeal
  • If a correction request is denied, the affected person should receive a written explanation and have the right to an independent administrative appeal and judicial review.

Protecting Victims and Children
The database must never expose a victim or create a new safety risk. It must not publish:

• A victim’s name, photograph, address, workplace, or contact information.
• The location of a victim or protected shelter.
• The names or identifying information of minor children.
• Court documents containing sensitive victim information.
• Information that could indirectly reveal where a protected victim currently lives.
• Government agencies should review records before publication and redact all protected victim and child information.

Preventing Harassment and Misuse
The database should clearly state that its information may not be used to threaten, stalk, harass, intimidate, or commit violence against anyone. It should also explain that a record does not authorize vigilantism or unlawful discrimination.

The purpose of the database is to provide accurate public information so that individuals can make informed safety decisions—not to encourage retaliation. Private companies that reproduce database information should be required to keep it accurate and remove records that have been overturned, sealed, expunged, or determined to involve mistaken identity.

Accountability and Oversight
The database should be operated by an appropriate federal agency in coordination with federal, state, Tribal, territorial, and local courts.

Congress should require:

• Uniform national reporting standards.
• Strong cybersecurity protections.
• Regular accuracy and civil-rights audits.
• Public reporting on errors, corrections, appeals, and removals.
• Penalties for government employees or contractors who knowingly publish false or prohibited information.
• Reliable procedures for preventing mistaken identity.
• Funding to modernize court systems and transmit conviction information accurately.
• Periodic review of the database’s effectiveness, fairness, and impact on public safety.
• What We Are Asking Congress to Do

We urge Congress to pass legislation that:

• Creates a centralized and publicly searchable National Domestic Violence Conviction Database.
• Requires courts and government agencies to automatically submit qualifying convictions.
• Places no registration, address-reporting, or personal updating requirement on convicted individuals.
• Limits inclusion to verified qualifying convictions—not arrests, accusations, or dismissed charges.
• Automatically updates records when convictions are overturned, vacated, sealed, expunged, pardoned, or corrected.
• Protects the identities and locations of victims and children.
• Provides a fast, free, and meaningful process for correcting mistakes and mistaken identity.
• Establishes security, auditing, oversight, and penalties for misuse.
• Makes verified public conviction information accessible without requiring people to pay private background-check companies.
• Public Information Should Be Accessible to the Public

This proposal does not create a new punishment or require a person to register. It creates one accurate and accessible location for qualifying domestic-violence convictions that are already matters of public record.

People are responsible for their actions. When someone has received due process and has been convicted in a court of law of a serious domestic-violence offense, that public conviction should not become almost impossible to find simply because it is buried in a county database or because the person moved across state lines.

At the same time, the government must be responsible for ensuring that every published record is accurate, that victims remain protected, and that anyone added by mistake can have the error corrected immediately.

A national database cannot predict every act of violence. It cannot replace domestic-violence education, shelters, law enforcement, lethality assessments, advocacy, counseling, or safety planning. But it can provide verified information before someone enters a relationship that may place them or their children in danger.

People deserve the opportunity to know. People deserve the ability to make informed choices. In some cases, access to this information could save a life.

Please sign this petition and call on Congress to create an accurate, secure, fair, and publicly accessible National Domestic Violence Conviction Database.