Senate OKs law for crime victims

The legislation would only cover federal crimes.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON -- The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation assuring that crime victims would have specific rights in court cases after sponsors determined that their efforts to pass a constitutional amendment on the issue would fail yet again.
The legislation passed Thursday would ensure that crime victims were notified of court proceedings, told when defendants were released and informed that they were allowed to speak at sentencing hearings.
"The scales of justice are today out of balance," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who with Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., had struggled for eight years to pass an amendment to the Constitution that would put victims on the same legal footing as defendants in criminal trials.
But stymied in their efforts to amend the Constitution -- even with President Bush's support -- Feinstein and Kyl instead decided to pursue a change in federal law.
The vote
The result was a 96-1 Senate vote to approve the measure, with the House soon expected to follow suit and Bush expected to sign the measure into law.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had scheduled a test vote on the proposed amendment Wednesday.
But when it became clear it had little chance of passage, sponsors decided to use legislation to achieve their goals. The bill was passed one day after it was introduced.
Because the measure would be a federal statute instead of a constitutional amendment, it would apply only to criminal cases in federal courts -- not state courts, where most violent crimes are tried.
Unlike the proposed constitutional amendment, which would have applied only to victims of violent crimes, the federal statute would apply to victims of all federal crimes, including white-collar offenses.
The measure approved Thursday was named after five crime victims, including two from Southern California -- Louarna Gillis, 22, of Alhambra, who was abducted and killed in 1979; and Scott Campbell, 27, of Anaheim, who was slain and thrown from an airplane over the Pacific Ocean in 1982. Feinstein said Gillis' family had not been notified of critical proceedings in the case and Campbell's family had not been permitted in the courtroom.
Amendment proposal
A constitutional crime victims amendment -- proposed as far back as 1982 by a task force appointed by then-President Reagan -- ran into opposition from members of both parties, who questioned the necessity of an amendment on such a specific issue.
Terry Ann Schroeder, a legislative analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomed the decision to leave the Constitution alone. But she said she was worried about provisions that would allow victims to speak at bail hearings without being put under oath or being subject to cross-examination. She said the ACLU also was concerned about a provision that would allow victims to sit in the courtroom throughout the trial. "If they are going to be a witness, it could certainly taint or bias their testimony," she said.