Congressional Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004 expands victim protections

Page 5 of 31 104 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 59, *65 encompassing" statutory victims’ bill of rights. 7! Victims' advocates sought to expand on the protections found in other previously-enacted victims' rights statutes, including, notably, the Victims' Rights and Restitution Act of 1990. 7? That statute had also included a bill of rights for crime victims, yet because of limited enforcement mechanisms, crime victims had been unable to secure court protection of the rights listed in the statute. 73 The statute that Congress passed to solve these problems - the Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004 - gave victims "the right to participate in the [*66] system.” 7+ It extended broad rights to crime victims, including "the right to be treated with fairness 25 and "the reasonable right to confer with the attorney for the and with respect for the victim's dignity and privacy" Government in the case." 7° It also commanded that these rights must be afforded by the Justice Department "and other departments and agencies of the United States engaged in the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime." 77 The CVRA also contained specific enforcement mechanisms. The Act provided that rights can be "asserted" by "the crime victim or the crime victim's lawful representative, and the attorney for the Government ... ."_ 28 The courts were also required under the Act to "ensure that the crime victim is afforded the rights" given by the law. 7? Congress appeared to have at least two goals in mind in passing the CVRA. The first was simply to ensure that crime victims understood what was happening in the criminal justice process. This goal is apparent from the fact that the CVRA gives crime victims rights to notification about various court hearings, as well as more general rights to confer with prosecutors and to be treated with fairness. 7° The CVRA's Senate sponsors explained: In case after case we found victims, and their families, were ignored, cast aside, and treated as non-participants in a critical event in their lives. They were kept in the dark by prosecutors too busy to care enough, by judges focused on [defendants'] rights, and by a court system that simply did not have a place for them. 3! In passing the CVRA, Congress sought to change the system's obliviousness to crime victims that often "left crime victims and their families victimized yet again." 3? '9 Hon. Jon Kyl et al., On the Wings of Their Angels: The Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy Preston, Louarna Gillis, and Nila Lynn Crime Victims' Rights Act, 9 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 581, 588-91 (2005). 20 Proposed Constitutional Amendment to Protect Crime Victims, S.J. Res. 1: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, 108th Cong. 128-29 (2003) (statement of Sen. Patrick Leahy); see also Steven J. Twist & Daniel Seiden, The Proposed Victims' Rights Amendment. A Brief Point/Counterpoint, 5 Phoenix L. Rev. 341, 356, 378 (2012) (illustrating that the necessity dispute has endured to the present day). 21 150 Cong. Rec. 7295 (2004) (statement of Sen. Dianne Feinstein); see also Kyl et al., supra note 19, at 591-93. ~ Victims' Rights and Restitution Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-647, 104 Stat. 4820 (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C.$$/0601, 10606-07 (2006)). 2 See, e.g., United States v. McVeigh, 106 F.3d 325, 328 (10th Cir. 1997) (per curiam) (refusing to enforce a victim's right to attend a trial); Cassell, Barbarians at the Gates?, supra note 18, at 515-22 (discussing McVeigh). 4 150 Cong. Rec. 7297; see 18 U.S.C. § 3771 (2012). For a description of victim participation, see Beloof, Cassell & Twist, supra note 6, at 728-33, % 18 U.S.C. § 3771(a)(8). 2 Id. § 3771(a)(5). 27 Id. § 3771 (c)(1). 28 Id. § 3771(d)(1). 2% Id. § 3771(b)(1). 30 See id. § 3771(a). 3! 150 Cong. Rec. 7296 (2004) (statement of Sen. Dianne Feinstein). DAVID SCHOEN HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017608