Historical Overview of Victims' Rights Movement and State Constitutional Amendments

Page 4 of 52 2005 B.Y.U.L. Rev. 835, *841 with defendants’ rights to the exclusion of crime victims' legitimate interests. !© These advocates urged reforms to give more attention to victims' concerns, including protecting the victim's right to be notified of court hearings, to attend those hearings, and to be heard at appropriate points in the process. The victims' rights movement recetved considerable impetus with the publication in 1982 of the Report of the President's Task Force on Victims of Crime. !7 The Task Force concluded that the criminal justice system "has lost an essential balance ... . The system has deprived the innocent, the honest, and the helpless of its protection ... . The victims of crime have been transformed into a group oppressively burdened by a system designed to protect them. This oppression must be redressed." 18 The Task Force advocated [*842] multiple reforms. It recommended that prosecutors assume the responsibility for keeping victims notified of all court proceedings and bringing to the court's attention the victim's view on such subjects as bail, plea bargains, sentences, and restitution. !? The Task Force also urged that courts receive victim impact evidence at sentencing, order restitution in most cases, and allow victims and their families to attend trials even if they are also called as witnesses. 7° In its most sweeping recommendation, the Task Force proposed a federal constitutional amendment to protect crime victims. The Task Force proposed adding to the Sixth Amendment's protections for defendants’ rights a provision allowing crime victims to be present and heard: "Likewise, the victim, in every criminal prosecution shall have the right to be present and to be heard at all critical stages of judicial proceedings." 7! In the wake of that recommendation, crime victims’ advocates considered how best to pursue a federal constitutional amendment that would protect victims' rights throughout the country. Recognizing the difficulty of obtaining the consensus required to amend the United States Constitution, advocates decided to go to the states first to pursue state victims' rights amendments. This "states-first" strategy °?? met with considerable success. To date, some thirty states have adopted victims’ rights amendments to their own state constitutions. 7? While these amendments take various forms, Arizona's amendment illustrates the types of rights typically protected. The Arizona constitutional provision gives victims the broad right to "be treated with fairness, respect, and dignity, and to [*843] be free from intimidation, harassment, or abuse, throughout the criminal justice process." 74 It also specifically confers a right to "be present at, and, upon request, to be informed of all criminal proceedings where the defendant has the right to be present." *° The amendment further allows victims to be heard at bail, plea, and sentencing hearings. 7° 16 See generally Beloof, Cassell & Twist, supra note 15, at ch. 1; Douglas E. Beloof, The Third Wave of Crime Victims' Rights: Standing, Remedy, and Review, 2005 BYU L. Rev. 255 [hereinafter Beloof, The Third Wave of Crime Victims' Rights]; Cassell, supra note 15, at 1381- 82. '7 President's Task Force on Victims of Crime, Final Report 114 (1982). 18 Td. 19 Td. at 63. 20 Td. at 72-73. 21 Td. at 114. 2 See S. Rep. No. 108-191, at 3 (2004), as reprinted in 2004 U.S.C.A.N. 2 Alaska Const. art. I, 24; Ariz. Const. art. II, 2.1; Cal. Const. art. I, 12, 28; Colo. Const. art. II, 16(a); Conn. Const. art. I, 8(b); Fla. Const. art. I, 16(b); Idaho Const. art. I, 22; Ill. Const. art. I, 8.1; Ind. Const. art. I, 13(b); Kan. Const. art. 15, 15; La. Const. art. 1, 25; Md. Decl. of Rights art. 47; Mich. Const. art. I, 24; Miss. Const. art. 3, 26(A); Mo. Const. art. I, 32; Neb. Const. art. I, 28; Nev. Const. art. I, 8(2); N.J. Const. art. I, 22; N.M. Const. art. 2, 24; N.C. Const. art. I, 37; Ohio Const. art. I, 10(a); Okla. Const. art. IT, 34; Or. Const. art. I, 42-43; R.I. Const. art. I, 23; S.C. Const. art. I, 24; Tenn. Const. art. 1, 35; Tex. Const. art. I, 30; Utah Const. art. I, 28; Va. Const. art. I, 8-A; Wash. Const. art. 1, 35; Wis. Const. art. I, 9(m). These amendments passed with overwhelming popular support. 4 Ariz. Const. art. IT, 2.1(A)(1). 25 Td. 2.1(A)(3). 26 Id. 2.1(A)(4). DAVID SCHOEN HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017718