Justice Department Guidelines on Victim Notification Appear to Align with OLC Opinion on CVRA Timing

2014] CRIME VICTIMS’ RIGHTS 95 Circuit’s 2008 ruling in In Re Dean, which held that the CVRA extends rights to victims before defendants are charged.”°' We have not seen any reports that providing the rights has been difficult. Perhaps the reason for the lack of any reported difficulty is that the Department’s current policy on crime victims’ rights already requires notices to victims during investigations. The Justice Department has promulgated the Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance, the latest edition of which is from May 2012. The Guidelines discuss crime victims’ rights under both the CVRA and the earlier VRRA. Because of the OLC memorandum discussed above, the Guidelines limit CVRA rights until after the time “when criminal proceedings are initiated by complaint, information, or indictment.”?°? The Department, however, provides hortatory guidance that Justice Department employees shall make “best efforts” to notify crime victims about their CVRA rights “as early in the criminal justice process as is feasible and appropriate.””°? Of greater interest, however, is the Department’s mandatory policy regarding notification regarding crime victim services under the VRRA. The Guidelines explain how “Department responsibilities to crime victims begin as soon as possible after the detection of a crime at which they may be undertaken without interfering in the investigation.”°* The Guidelines then direct the appropriate “responsible official” to provide crime victims with “information about services available to them.”?° This information must be provided at “the earliest opportunity after detection of a crime at which it may be done without interfering with an investigation.”?°° The Department appears to have little difficulty implementing this requirement. Evidence of this fact comes from the Justice Department itself, which responded to the letter from Senator Kyl discussed earlier questioning why the Department was not applying the CVRA before charges were filed.*°’ In its response, the Department noted that OLC had issued an opinion that the CVRA did not extend rights before the formal filing of charges.*°* “Even so,” the Department explained, “the new AG Guidelines go further and provide that Department prosecutors should make 201 597 F.3d 391 (5th Cir. 2008). 202 ATTORNEY GENERAL GUIDELINES, supra note 52, at 8. 203 Td. at 35. 204 Td. at 26 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 10607(b) (2006)). 205 Td. at 29 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 10607(b)(2)). Elsewhere, the Guidelines define the official who is responsible as the appropriate federal law enforcement officer during the investigation of the crime or the U.S. Attorney once charges have been filed. Id. at 25-26. 206 Td. at 29. °07 See supra notes 130-33 and accompanying text. 208 Letter from Ronald Weich, supra note 135, at 2. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_014074