CRIME VICTIMS’ RIGHTS AMENDMENT

 

Overview

 

·         Crime victims have no constitutional rights.

 

·         Criminal defendants have almost two dozen separateconstitutional rights, fifteen of them provided by amendmentsto the U.S. Constitution.

 

·         These rights trump the statutory and state constitutional rights of crime victims because the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land.

 

·         To level the playing field, crime victims need rights in the U.S. Constitution.

 

·         At the time the Constitution was drafted, there were no public prosecutors.  Victims themselves prosecuted crimes.  There was no need for a victims’ rights amendment then.  Now there is.

 

·         The Crime Victims’ Rights Amendment will bring balance to the system by giving crime victims the rights to be informed, present, and heard at critical stages throughout their case–the least that the system owes to those it failed to protect.

 

New Version

 

·         In the 106^th Congress, Senators Feinstein and Kyl introduced S.J. Res. 3, the Crime Victims’ Rights Constitutional Amendment, which was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 41 Senators, including Senators Biden, Reid, Lieberman, Lott, McCain, Craig, and Snowe.

 

·         However, in response to concerns raised by some senators, Senators Feinstein and Kyl worked with constitutional law experts to improve the amendment.  The new version is shorter, sounds more like a constitutional amendment, and accommodates concerns from prosecutors and those protective of defendants’ rights and the president’s constitutional power.

 

Support

 

·         President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft have endorsed this new version of the amendment.  So has Harvard Law School Professor Larry Tribe.

 

·         Major national victims’ rights groups–including Parents of Murdered Children, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the National Organization for Victim Assistance, and the National Victims’ Constitutional Amendment Network–support the amendment.

 

·         Former President Clinton supports an amendment as does former Vice-President Gore.  In 2000, both the Democratic and Republican Party Platforms called for a victims’ rights amendment 

 

·         Governors in 49 out of 50 states have called for an amendment.  In 2000, 43 attorneys general  (including three federal) endorsed the amendment.

 

·         There is strong support around the country for an amendment.  Thirty-two states have passed similar measures–by an average popular vote of almost 80 percent.