Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance lobbied in Albany on Wednesday for a bill that would create harsher penalties for repeat domestic violence offenders and which is stalled in the Senate.

The bill — which passed in the Assembly last year — would charge domestic violence abusers who commit two or more offenses within a five-year period with a class-E felony.

Currently, unless repeat offenders seriously injure or kill someone, their crimes are considered misdemeanors.  

“It does give the judge and prosecutors more tools,” Vance told WNYC. “An E-felony does not require incarceration, but it does give the judge the ability to order a longer period of probation. … A felony also doubles the time period of an order of protection.”

Between 2007 and 2011, 685 individuals were convicted of two or more domestic violence offenses in Manhattan, according to Vance.

The prosecutor pointed to a rise in domestic violence homicides as evidence that the problem needs a quick fix.

Last year, there were 92 domestic violence-related homicides citywide compared to 77 in 2010 and 62 in 2009, according to the mayor’s Office of Domestic Violence. Brooklyn has led the city in domestic violence related killings.

Part of the reason for the bill’s hold-up is that the Senate is considering competing bills that require things such as mandatory jail time or the denial of bail for repeat offenders.  

“It doesn’t make sense to make victims to wait for this bill to become law,” said state Senator Daniel Squadron, a co-sponsor of the bill.

Vance said he supports the Squadron legislation because it’s got the most realistic chance of getting passed by both houses of the legislature.  

“I don’t want the perfect to stand in the way of the good,” he said.