Help offered to get Marsy's Law into action

During last year’s election, Montanans voted Yes to CI-116, Marsy’s Law, also known as the victim’s bill of rights. The law also passed in North and South Dakota joining California and Illinois. It gives victims of crime rights equal to those accused and those convicted of a crime. The law goes into effect July 1, 2017.

However, this new law has raised questions, such as what crimes does this apply to, how will victim information be shared between agencies, and how will this affect defendants’ rights. Many of these questions are being settled during this Legislative session.

Another issue of concern from the courts is how they will handle the added time needed to implement the new law. In Mineral County, employee’s time, and department funds are already stretched thin due to budget deficits. Several department heads have expressed their concerns at recent commissioner meetings regarding the laws implementation.

At a March 10 Commissioner’s meeting, County Attorney, Ellen Donohue, reported that funds are now available for Montana counties specifically for the Prosecutor’s Office for victim advocates. As a result of Marsy’s Law and the need to involve victims in prosecution cases.

The funds are available through a grant from the Montana Board of Crime Control. Donohue, along with Mary Furlong, of the Healthy Relationships Project, worked together to complete the grant due on March 22.

Donohue said they are currently in the process of hiring a victim advocate from the Office on Violence Against Women, which is another grant funded position. However, it is only for survivors of domestic or sexual violence.

“The good thing about Marsy’s Law is that a victim advocate can help with any crime,” she said.

A few weeks ago she had a husband and wife in her office regarding a major theft case. She spent nearly an hour and a half going over the case with them. Once the position is filled, that’s something the victim advocate can handle.

“I’m glad the Crime Board realized this a tremendous need because it’s going to be hard to keep victims in the loop without some kind of help,” she said. “While talking to the gentleman and his wife I was thinking how nice it would be to have a victim advocate here to help keep them informed. Someone they can call and say “what’s going on with my case?” It’s just so critical.”

Marsy’s Law was named after a University of California Santa Barbara student, who was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. Only a week after Marsy was murdered, her brother and mother had walked into a grocery store and were confronted by the accused murderer. The family had no idea that he had been released on bail.

Marsy’s family had not been informed that her murderer had been released because the courts and law enforcement had no obligation to keep them informed. According to Marsy’s Law literature, criminals have more than 20 individual rights spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, the surviving family members of murder victims have had none, until the passage of this new law. Courts must now consider the safety of victims and families when setting bail and release conditions. Family members also have legal standing in bail hearings, pleas, sentencing, and parole hearings.