Victims of Crime Resource Center

The following is a brief summary of Kathleen Benton’s thoughts on Mark’s and my proposal regarding Marsy’s law. For a full description of the meeting Eve, Emil and I had with Kathleen, please see Emil’s post below.

Following Eve and Emil’s discussion with Kathleen regarding their proposal for reforming the Victim’s Bill of Rights, I informed Kathleen on Mark and my proposal for reforming Marsy’s law. Our proposal seeks to make three main changes to Marsy’s Law: 1) reduce the mandatory waiting period for inmates seeking parole; 2) reduce the standard evidence required for an inmate to establish his or her need for an early parole hearing; and 3) add a restorative justice aspect to the bill that allows a victim to request that the parole board exercise its discretion to advance a parole hearing.

Kathleen prefaced her critique of our bill by highlighting that she was not too familiar with the logistical implications of Marsy’s Law. However, after listening to our revision to Marsy’s Law, Kathleen commented that our proposal sounded good. She pointed out that reducing the standard of evidence from ‘clear and convincing’ to ‘reasonable’ was a great idea. Also, she noted that instead of simply reducing the mandatory waiting period for inmates seeking parole, we might instead want to set up a system that restricts the longer waiting periods (10-15 years) for the more serious offenses such as rape and murder. Finally, Kathleen pointed out that not everyone is a murder victim and that were we to amend our proposal further, we should keep that in mind.

I found our meeting with Kathleen extremely informative and interesting. I especially enjoyed her thoughts on the reality of parole hearings. Much to my surprise, Kathleen informed us that the majority of those who speak at parole hearings are supporters of the inmate and not the victim. She went on to tell us that parole hearings often take place at prisons that are far away from where the victim or victim’s family reside. Thus, it is often difficult for the victim or the victim’s family to travel to the hearing.

Special thanks to Eve for setting up and securing this meeting!