WI Legislator Calls for Task Force on Missing and Murdered Black Women

A Wisconsin lawmaker is renewing her push to create a state task force on missing and murdered Black women after the high-profile murder of a Milwaukee woman last year.

Democratic state Rep. Shelia Stubbs, a Black lawmaker from Madison, first introduced a bill to create the task force three years ago. She introduced the bill again last year, but it failed to get a vote in the Senate. She’s now trying for a third time after the death of 19-year-old Sade Robinson, who was killed by a man she met for a first date.

[INARTICLEAD]“Three years is three years too long,” Stubbs said. “How many victims have we lost waiting on time?”

Robinson went missing after she went out to dinner and drinks with Maxwell Anderson on April 1, 2024. Earlier this month, a jury found Anderson guilty of killing and dismembering Robinson.

Stubbs said she’s built a relationship with Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough, and has spoken with her often over the past few months. Stubbs was in the courtroom when the guilty verdict was read.

“It was just a moment of … thankfulness, a moment of feeling like our prayers were answered,” Stubbs said of the verdict.

Standing outside the Milwaukee County Courthouse moments after the jury convicted Anderson, Scarbrough said she’ll be working with Stubbs to get the task force started in Wisconsin.

“We’re pushing for the missing and murdered task force,” Scarbrough said during a press conference. “It’s mandatory.”

“The state definitely needs it for our BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] women, for all women,” she added.

A 2022 investigation by The Guardian found that an average of five Black women and girls were killed every day in the United States in 2020. The National Crime Information Center found that in 2022, more than 97,000 Black women and girls were reported missing.

A 2024 report in the Lancet found that in Wisconsin in 2019 and 2020, “Black women aged 25–44 years were 20 times more likely to die by homicide than White women.”

Stubbs called those statistics “alarming.”

“This is the state that I live in,” Stubbs said. “This is the state I’m raising my 15-year-old in.”

The main goal of the task force, Stubbs said, would be to, “investigate systemic causes of violence against African American women and girls.”

“I want to really look at the policies from law enforcement that they’re using to search for these missing families,” she said.

Stubbs also wants to improve data collection in the state around the issue.

“But most important, we need to develop aid to victims [and] their families in our community,” Stubbs said.

The task force would have law enforcement members, legal experts, experts in the field of gender-based violence and representatives from organizations that provide aid to Black women. It would also have survivors and victims of gender-based violence or their family members.

Stubbs said the “victims” would be the most important people on the task force.

Stubbs said the first time she introduced the bill, it did not have bipartisan support. The second time she introduced the measure, it had the support of Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, and Sen. Jesse James, R-Altoona — who both signed on as cosponsors.

After the bill was introduced last year, End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin Executive Director Monique Minkens said the task force would be a “step in the direction of saving lives.”

But after the bill passed in the Assembly, it was not taken up for a vote in the Senate after some pushback from former Sen. Duey Stroebel.

Schraa is no longer in office. James was not available for comment.

Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed budget included funding for a staff member for the task force, which would be housed in the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention, according to the budget proposal. But the powerful Joint Finance Committee removed that provision in the budget.

In a statement, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said he supports the creation of the task force.

“I fully support action by the state legislature to create and provide the resources needed for a task force on missing and murdered African American women and girls,” Kaul wrote in the statement. “It’s critical for this task force to have adequate state funding so the task force has the resources it needs to help effect meaningful change.”

In an interview with WPR, Stubbs said she’s not yet sure when she’ll officially reintroduce the bill for the task force.

“But I am going to say this very loud and clear: We are going to fight until this bill becomes law across the state of Wisconsin,” Stubbs said.

Listen to the WPR report

Wisconsin lawmaker renews push for task force on missing and murdered Black women was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.