Senate Committee Passes Proposed Victims' Rights Amendment - Sept 4 - Wash D.C.

September 4, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Communications@ Force100.org

Senators' Office  (202) 224-4521

Memory of Victims Everywhere (949) 248-5470 

CRIME VICTIMS MAY

 GET EQUAL RIGHTS
 TO CRIMINALS
 

            

WASHINGTON, D.C. .After seven years, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee today approved (Sept. 4) a proposal to amend the U. S. Constitution to specify certain rights for crime victims, which criminals already enjoy 

(S J Res 1).      

National Amendment Victim's Chairperson, Collene (Thompson) Campbell, whose only Son was murdered and is also the sister of murdered auto racing legend, Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, said,  "Our forefathers did not intentionally leave victims of crime out of the Constitution.  However, in 1787, when the Constitution was written, it was a much different time.  Victims were usually their own prosecutors. Therefore, their rights of participation were not in question.   Obviously, today's courts and the justice system are handled very differently.  A further need to protect the victim and the victim's family is very evident and unmistakable.  It is simply unjust and should not be allowed to continue."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (D- CA), Co-sponsor of the amendment, with Jon Kyle, (R-AZ), said, "While criminal defendants have almost two dozen separate constitutional rights - l5 of them provided by amendments to the U.S. Constitution - "There is not a SINGLE WORD in the Constitution about crime victims".   Senator Feinstein further stated, "To level the playing field, crime victims also need rights in the U.S. Constitution." 

Senator Kyle said, "Today's vote is an important victory for the six million Americans who are the victims of violent crime every year.  The bipartisan amendment would help give equal justice to crime victims by finally giving them a voice in proceedings that so directly impact their lives.  Giving victims the right to be informed, present, and heard at sentencing in criminal cases does not seem like too much to ask from a system that awards a litany of rights to their attackers."

          Campbell said, "Every day in our Country forty-four people are murdered and 7,000 crimes are committed.  That means there are a lot of people being mistreated by despicable criminals who are given more rights in our justice system than the actual victims of their often heinous crimes.  Something is very wrong with this picture."

            The U. S. Constitution gives criminals a right to be noticed and present at any court action and also the right to be in the courtroom.  Plus, they have a right to be heard at sentencing.  "A family member of a murder victim should be entitled to those same rights", said Campbell.   "But instead, the family member or the victim are often excluded from the courtroom.  This is sad, because often the victims are the most knowledgeable regarding a case."

My family is one of the millions who have been excluded from the trial court and relegated to sitting on a bench in the hallway, while the killers' families are seated with dignity inside the courtroom.  I also represent the many victims' families who were not notified of their court proceedings.  Our family was dumbfounded when informed by the media that the District Court of Appeal had overturned the murder trial and released the killer of our Son, while all of the family and friends of our Son's murderer were seated in the courtroom.  When I asked the Attorney General's Prosecutor why she had not bothered to notify our family, her answer was demeaning and unacceptable.  She said, "We never notify the victim's family, they simply don't understand."  The truth was, she was not required to notify us, because we do not have those rights in our U.S. Constitution.

I also represent the families of the murdered victims who were not allowed to speak at the sentencing of the killers of their loved ones, and therefore the jury never really had the opportunity to comprehend the love, the fine qualities of the murdered victim; and the related devastation and pain of surviving family members.  The jury was only able to hear the often fabricated stories regarding the offenders, not the value and the lost love of the murdered victim. 

Honest, law-abiding citizens, who just happen to become a victim of crime, are treated like substandard citizens.              Campbell further stated, " With the knowledge and experience I have gained in the Justice System, I would be ashamed to die, if I didn't do everything in my power to bring at least a little fairness and balance to victims.  No one who hasn't been there can possibly imagine." 

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