LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky voters ratified Marsy’s Law in 2018 to create a Crime Victim’s Bill of Rights in the Kentucky Constitution but despite 63 percent of voters approving the amendment, the Kentucky Supreme Court struck it down saying the wording of the question did not provide voters enough of an idea of what it would do.
Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton, has filed Senate Bill 15, to add Marsy’s Law to the ballot once again in 2020.
“Marsy’s Law would ensure that crime victims have constitutionally protected rights here in the state of Kentucky,” said Dr. Emily Bonistall Postel, Director of Outreach, Marsy’s Law for Kentucky. “Victims of crime deserve to have basic enforceable rights, the right to be notified, the right to present, the right to be heard, and those rights should be enforceable and they should be protected at the level we protect defendants’ rights which is at the constitutional level.”
Currently, victims of crime have protections but at the statutory level which advocates for Marsy’s Law say causes them to be weaker than defendants.
If passed the constitution would also apply to crime victims’ families. Dr. Bonistall Postel says this is especially important when it comes to families of murder victims.
“I lost my cousin in 2005, she was murdered in her campus apartment and so obviously when you have a homicide that victim is not the person who goes through the victim, it might be their parent, their sibling, their partner,” she said. “Marsy’s Law would certainly ensure those individuals have the same rights protected for them as well.”
For victims of crime going through the legal process can be a necessary part of the healing process Dr. Bonistall Postel said.
“For some crime victims they want to participate in the criminal justice system and it’s important that they ensure that they have the right to do so in a way that is compassionate and in a way that is implemented fairly for all crime victims so by codifying it in the constitution we are sending that very important message to victims of crimes in Kentucky that they matter, that their voice matters, they deserve to have basic enforceable rights.”
Dr. Bonistall Postel says she hears from crime victims often who feel their rights have not been protected while the defendant makes their way through the criminal justice system.
“It’s really, really traumatizing for crime victims who are already dealing with the grief, who are already so affected by the crime to then have the criminal justice system not value them in ways that are very important to be valued,” she said. “I hear stories from folks all across the state and it’s a lot to hold in and it’s a lot to carry and it’s an uncomfortable truth, we currently have these protections in statutory law but they are not always necessarily provided for all victims of crime.”
Some critics of the referendum say it will be costly to implement these type of protections, Dr. Bonistall Postel acknowledged some states have found Marsy’s Law did cost more than they had planned for but doesn’t believe Kentucky will incur those same costs.
“We already have the VINE system which is something that other states have found to be the cost factor,” she said. “Here we already have this amazing system in place where victims can go into this system and sign up for alerts for a whole variety of things. The difference with Marsy’s Law is that you can’t assert your rights if you don’t what those are, and so one of the rights that Marsy’s Law provides and would protect at the constitutional level is the right to know your rights.”
While most of the language in the amendment is the same as 2018, one new provision was added in as a result of recent pardons from former Gov. Matt Bevin. The new provision reads: “victims shall have the reasonable right, upon request, to timely notice of all proceedings and to be heard in any proceeding involving a release, plea, sentencing, or in the consideration of any pardon, commutation of sentence, granting of a reprieve, or other matter involving the right of a victim other than grand jury proceedings”
Dr. Bonistall Postel believes the inclusion of this can help get the constitutional amendment ratified by voters by possibly a higher percentage.
“There was such public outcry about the way that victims and their families were not included in that process; that they weren’t notified, that they weren’t given the opportunity to be heard and that is the heart of Marsy’s Law and so every time we heard those stories of families who found out about the pardons after the fact or through the media my heart broke for them because I empathize very personally with what that would be like to get that phone call,” she said.
More information about Marsy’s Law for Kentucky can found here.