Yesterday Jasmine and I gave a lecture to the Victimization class at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This is our fifth year of speaking with students about our experience in the criminal justice system, the two laws we passed and victims rights. Each time we give our lecture the professor points out how her students learn more information from us than they do in their text books. Ive tapes each lecture and will post the one from yesterday so that others can watch our presentation. I am contemplating if I should publish our lecture so that the information can be provided in text books and read by all the students who take this class in every University. Today we will vote on the Victims Bill of Rights Constitutional Amendment to which I will vote no because I do not support legislation that bars a court from appointing an attorney for victims who cannot afford or retain legal representation to assert their rights on appeal. Furthermore, I do not support legislation that bars a victim from recovering the legal expenses s/he paid to assert her or his right. Victims should not have to pay for their rights. There are millions of dollars available in the victim compensation fund that could be used to provide victims with pro bono legal representation. These funds are not taxpayer dollars they are dollars that are collected from the fines, fees and penalties of convicted offenders. During the criminal justice process a victim needs legal representation because the prosecutor does not act as our attorney and we are not named parties in the criminal case. As victims of violent crime we do have rights that must be enforced and without legal representation victims will have to navigate the legal process at his or her financial expense in addition to suffering the crime that was committed against them/us. This is unfair and we can easily remedy this flaw by lifting the burden off victims who access the courts to seek justice without infringing on defendants rights or at the expense of taxpayers.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 12:58:41 +0000