Providing Equal Rights to Crime Victims

Marsy’s Law seeks to give crime victims meaningful and enforceable constitutional rights equal to the rights of the accused. Some examples of the types of rights to which we believe all victims are entitled are:

• To be treated with dignity and respect throughout criminal justice proceedings
• To be notified of his, her or their rights as a victim of crime
• To be notified of specific public proceedings throughout the criminal justice process and to be present and heard during those proceedings

Victims’ rights will not trump defendants’ constitutional rights. Victims’ constitutional rights create balance with defendants’ constitutional rights. Our government is founded on a system of checks and balances. The courts have the ability to balance rights if a conflict arises between a victim’s right and a defendant’s right.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of national laws have been passed dealing with criminal activity. Our constitutional amendment is unique as it is only effort that, once successful at the state level or ultimately successful at the national level, creates true equal rights for victims of crime in the criminal justice process. Currently, those accused of crimes and those convicted of crimes see their rights coming from the Constitution, whereas victims do not. Hence victims too often are the second-class citizens in the court and in the criminal justice process. We have seen over and over again that simply having statutory rights continues to leave too many victims to be revictimized by the criminal justice process.