Law Review Discusses Congressional Oversight of Victims' Rights Act (CVRA)

Page 52 of 52 2005 B.Y.U.L. Rev. 835, *924 implementing the CVRA. However, since the Advisory Committee will be making many decisions about how to best change the rules, one concluding thought may be worth highlighting. Congress will be paying close attention to how courts protect the rights of future victims. Indeed, the CVRA directs the Administrative Office for the U.S. Courts to report each year the number of times that victims have attempted to assert their rights and been denied the requested relief. 344 More generally, Congress views the new Act as an important step to protecting crime victims - a "new and bolder approach, than has ever been tried before in our Federal system." 34> Congress is eagerly awaiting the results of this approach. As Senator Leahy warned, "Passage of this bill will necessitate careful oversight of its implementation by Congress." >4° Victims' advocates, too, will be watching carefully. *47 In light of this thorough and ongoing interest, the judiciary should not merely attempt a "quick fix" or minimalist approach to implementing the CVRA, but should comprehensively protect crime victims’ rights by changes in court rules. If Congress believes that the federal rules fail to faithfully reflect crime victims’ concerns, it can directly amend the rules. But such direct amendments may not sufficiently attend to the needs of the judicial branch or others involved in the criminal justice process. It is in that spirit of eliminating any need for congressional intervention that this Article [*925] offers proposals to fully and faithfully implement the congressional directive that victims be integrated into the criminal justice process. In the final analysis, whether the courts or Congress redraft the rules is less important than that the redrafting occur. As commanded in the CVRA, crime victims are now participants in federal criminal cases. That new reality must be reflected throughout the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Brigham Young University Law Review Copyright (c) 2005 Brigham Young University Law Review End of Document 34-18 U_S.C.A. 3771, Historical and Statutory Notes (requiring the Administrative Office of the courts to file an annual report with Congress concerning the number of times a victim's right is asserted and denied by federal courts). 345 150 Cong. Rec. $4263 (daily ed. Apr. 22, 2004) (statement of Sen. Feinstein). 346 Td. at S4271 (daily ed. Apr. 22, 2004) (statement of Sen. Leahy). 347 United States v. Turner, 367 F. Supp. 2d 319, 337 (E.D.N.Y. 2005) (noting that victims’ advocates "will be watching to see how federal courts and prosecutors carry out the new law's mandate"). DAVID SCHOEN HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017766