Remembering the victims of crime

“Jus­tice, though due to the accused, is due the accuser also. The con­cept of fair­ness must not be strained till it is nar­rowed to a fil­a­ment. We are to keep the bal­ance true.”

— Jus­tice Ben­jamin Cardozo

“My expe­ri­ence is that peo­ple who have been through painful, dif­fi­cult times are filled with compassion.”

— Amy Grant

Appel­late cases in the crim­i­nal arena fre­quently focus on the rights of those accused of crimes. It is only log­i­cal that this would be the case. The accused has an attor­ney and is a party to the pro­ceed­ings. The sys­tem strives to ensure that those who are charged with crimes are treated fairly and that their Con­sti­tu­tional rights are protected.

To ensure that the vic­tims of crime have a voice in court and that their rights are pro­tected as well, most states and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment have now adopted laws or con­sti­tu­tional pro­vi­sions to pro­tect the rights of crime vic­tims. Many court sys­tems, either through the pros­e­cu­tor or directly through the court, have a vic­tim advo­cate to assist in gath­er­ing resti­tu­tion infor­ma­tion, pro­vide notice of hear­ing dates and oth­er­wise shep­herd vic­tims through the court process. April 22–28 is National Crime Vic­tim Rights Week and is an excel­lent time to look at how the work of those advo­cates is gov­erned by sev­eral pro­vi­sions of Ohio law that relate specif­i­cally to victims.

First, and most impor­tantly, law enforce­ment agen­cies, pros­e­cu­tors and courts are now required to pro­vide notice to vic­tims when a defen­dant is arrested, charged or sched­uled to appear in court. In this way, vic­tims can mon­i­tor the progress in their cases and can be present for court pro­ceed­ings. Dur­ing the court process, vic­tims not only have the right to be present, but also to have a vic­tim advo­cate appear with them or appear in their place to observe and mon­i­tor the proceedings.

The law also grants vic­tims sev­eral oppor­tu­ni­ties for input as the process moves for­ward. Ohio law pro­vides that if a pros­e­cu­tor intends to amend or dis­miss a charge or to agree to a nego­ti­ated plea, the pros­e­cu­tor should con­fer with the vic­tim before­hand, “to the extent prac­ti­ca­ble.” In juve­nile cases where the child’s charge will be han­dled through pre­trial diver­sion, the court is required to notify the vic­tim of that fact.

If the defen­dant is con­victed or if the juve­nile is adju­di­cated delin­quent, then the vic­tim must be afforded an oppor­tu­nity to com­plete a writ­ten vic­tim impact state­ment or sub­mit to the court a writ­ten state­ment prior to sen­tenc­ing or dis­po­si­tion. The vic­tim is also per­mit­ted to make a state­ment to a per­son prepar­ing what is called a pre­sen­tence inves­ti­ga­tion — a report pre­pared in order to give the court more infor­ma­tion about the defen­dant and the defendant’s history.

Once a defen­dant has been sen­tenced, the vic­tim is enti­tled to notice of post-conviction pro­ceed­ings in the case. This includes notice of any appeals filed and hear­ing on those appeals, notice of requests for early release and notice of the actual date of release. If the defen­dant asks for a release and a hear­ing will be held on that request, the vic­tim is again per­mit­ted to be present for the hear­ing on the release request and is per­mit­ted to make a statement.

Delaware County is for­tu­nate to have sev­eral extremely ded­i­cated vic­tim advo­cates. Trish Wright is the direc­tor of the Office of Victim’s Ser­vices through the office of County Pros­e­cu­tor Carol O’Brien. In addi­tion to the ser­vices noted above, her office also pro­vides 24/7 response when crimes occur and assists with appli­ca­tions for pro­tec­tion orders. Valerie Par­rish is the vic­tim advo­cate through the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, assists with vic­tims in Munic­i­pal Court and han­dles the reg­is­tra­tion of sex offend­ers in Delaware County. Dana Wise­carver assists vic­tims in juve­nile cases and works con­tin­u­ously to pro­vide accu­rate infor­ma­tion on resti­tu­tion and vic­tim statements.

These advo­cates, in con­junc­tion with local agen­cies like HelpLine and Turn­ing Point, give a voice to those who have per­se­vered through crime.

David Hej­manowski is a mag­is­trate and court admin­is­tra­tor of the Delaware County Juve­nile Court and a for­mer assis­tant pros­e­cut­ing attorney.

Posted by Dave Hejmanowski on Apr 26 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.