Guest Author
Prioritizing the delivery of crime victims’ Marsy’s Law for Florida rights is more important than ever in these trying times. Victims who are already at the most vulnerable points of their lives now have to deal with the uncertainty that surrounds our current environment and their own personal cases.
Courtrooms are closed, hearings have been reset and, when possible, conducted technologically. For many victims, the legal process has ground to a halt effectively delaying their pursuit of justice. Short-staffed jails concerned about the spread of COVID-19 within detention facilities are making the tough decision to release inmates early. Without constitutionally mandated victim notification, this could expose an unknowing victim to a potentially dangerous or life-threatening encounter with a perpetrator they believed was still incarcerated.
Amid this pandemic, we cannot let victims’ rights get lost in the shuffle.
Victims’ rights need more than just lip service. They need to actually be provided. Unfortunately, in many cases including the case of my daughter, that’s not happening.
My eight-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by a juvenile. Throughout the course of her case, which is ongoing, the presiding judge denied my daughter’s constitutional right to counsel. At the defense counsel’s request, the presiding judge struck the Notices of Appearances filed by counsel, effectively silencing my daughter’s voice. He also prohibited counsel from being heard on multiple motions that sought to enforce her rights and refused to allow counsel to represent her in any proceeding going forward.
It seemed the court system was only concerned about my daughter’s perpetrator. There was no consideration for my child or her rights, even though the constitution now requires that a victim’s rights be given the same consideration as those of a defendant or a juvenile delinquent.
Thanks to Marsy’s Law for Florida, we have an avenue to fight for her rights. Marsy’s Law for Florida has given my child the right to maintain her dignity during the course of the case, as well as the right to seek court enforcement when her constitutional rights were violated.
Marsy’s Law for Florida changed the rules of the game for crime victims in Florida. Ironically, I voted against it because, as an attorney, I feared the repercussions on our criminal justice system. I believed that the existing statutory victims’ rights were sufficient. However, I had no actual experience in the criminal justice system. Fortunately, the majority of Floridians were smarter than me.
This week, as we recognize National Crime Victims’ Rights Week in a world that’s been turned upside down, I want others who have been thrust into the criminal justice system to know that you do have rights and you have the right to have those rights enforced. Marsy’s Law for Florida has the potential to change lives for the better and crime victims deserve to be provided with all the rights and protections voters wanted them to have.
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Michelle Blankenship Jordan is an attorney and the mother of a Florida crime victim
