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(Part of the Justice For All Act) OVC does not exercise control over external Web sites.
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Additional Crime Victims' Rights Act resource material will be posted online as it becomes available. The Justice for All Act of 2004 (H.R. 5107, Public Law 108-405) was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 30, 2004. The Act contains four major sections related to crime victims and the criminal justice process. Some purposes of the Act are to protect crime victims' rights, to eliminate the substantial backlog of DNA samples collected from crime scenes and convicted offenders, and to improve and expand the DNA testing capacity of federal, state, and local crime laboratories. These sections are designated as follows:
A fact sheet about JFAA offers further information about the Act. A presentation can be downloaded that summarizes programs and funding under CVRA. PDF (445 kb) and PowerPoint (275 kb) versions. Kenna v. United States District Court: The First Test Case In January 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Kenna v. United States District Court that victims have the right to speak at sentencing hearings. The case was filed under the Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA), 18 U.S.C. Section 3771, and involved a father and son who pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. More than 60 victims submitted victim impact statements. At the father's sentencing hearing, several victims spoke about the effects of the crimes. At the son's sentencing hearing, however, the judge refused to allow victims to speak. The Court of Appeals held that the district judge had made a mistake (PDF 556 kb). United States v. Wood: Victims' Schedules and Court Proceedings On July 17, 2006, the court granted the government's motion to continue sentencing a defendant found guilty of one count of fraud because the individual victims were scheduled to be out of the country on October 16, 2006, the scheduled date for sentencing. The defendant objected, arguing that the corporation was the victim, not the individuals. The court found that the individuals as well as the corporation were victims of the defendant's action and, citing the Federal Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA), 18 U.S.C. Section 3771, noted that crime victims have the right to be reasonably heard and that the "CVRA was enacted to make crime victims full participants in the criminal justice system." More details on this case, United States v. Wood (No. 05-00072DAE [D. Haw., July 17, 2006]), and a PDF of the decision can be found on the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) Web site under Cases of Interest. Services for Federal Crime Victims: Automated Notifications and Victim Recourses The Nationwide Automated Victim Information and Notification System
Recourse Through the Office of the Victims' Rights Ombudsman Additional Victims' Rights Resources 2006 National Crime Victims' Rights Week Supplement Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance (PDF 558 kb) |
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