On September 4, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved, 10-8, S.J. Res. 1, a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee certain procedural rights to victims of violent crimes. The vote marked the end of a marathon mark-up session that began before the August recess, when the vote was delayed several times because a quorum was not present.
Sponsored by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), S.J. Res. 1 would give victims of crime (or those speaking on behalf of victims of crime) the right to be heard at sentencing, parole hearings, and other criminal proceedings. The measure also would require victims’ safety to be factored into release hearings for violent criminals.
Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) expressed his theoretical support for protections for crime victims, but noted that he was concerned that a constitutional amendment, besides being redundant, also could threaten existing rights of defendants.
“We need to set a national floor for victims’ rights,” said Sen. Leahy. “But states are not unwilling to protect victims far from it. Every state already protects the rights of crime victims, whether by statute or by constitutional amendment, or both. … You do not need to be a Harvard Law School professor to know that constitutional rights can be, and sadly are, violated all the time. Amending the U.S. Constitution is a serious business. We should not amend the Constitution as a symbolic gesture as a way of saying, ‘listen up we really mean it!’ When we pass a statute, we also really mean it. So do state legislators.”
Sen. Feinstein addressed Sen. Leahy’s concerns, which were representative of the rest of the committee’s Democratic members. “A constitutional amendment will balance the scales of justice. Currently, while criminal defendants have almost two dozen separate constitutional rights fifteen of them provided by amendments to the U.S. Constitution there is not a single word in the Constitution about crime victims,” she said. “These rights trump the statutory and state constitutional rights of crime victims because the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. To level the playing field, crime victims need rights in the U.S. Constitution. In the event of a conflict between a victim’s and a defendant’s rights, the court will be able to balance those rights and determine which party has the most compelling argument.”
Following committee passage of S.J. Res. 1, Sen. Feinstein said that the fate of the amendment would be largely dependent on the support of grassroots activists. “This amendment will rise and fall on the floor of the House and the Senate based on victims weighing-in in support. Sixty-seven votes are difficult to obtain.” Sen. Feinstein said she did not expect the resolution to go to the Senate floor before the end of the year.
