Crime victims need enforceable law

Georgia has had a crime victims’ bill of rights since 2010. That’s a good thing in those jurisdictions that adhere to the state’s statutory laws protecting crime victims, but there is no recourse for crime victims in those that don’t.

This is why many committed Georgians are pushing again this year for the state to adopt its own version of Marsy’s Law, a set of crime victims’ rights that would, if approved by the General Assembly and then by Georgia voters, be written into the state constitution.

Marsy’s Law, originally enacted in California, is named in memory of Marsy Nicholas, a 21-year-old college student stalked and murdered in Santa Barbara by an ex-boyfriend in 1983. In the more than 30 years since her brother and other family members first mounted their fight for the legal rights of crime victims and their families, 35 states have adopted versions of Marsy’s Law as constitutional protections. Georgia is one of the 15 states that still has not.

Ann Casas, state leader of the effort to have Marsy’s law adopted in Georgia, recently hailed the approval of the measure by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Crime victims in Georgia are one step closer to having constitutional rights that put them on equal footing in the eyes of the law with those accused of harming them,” said Casas. “The right to notifications, the right to be heard in court or at a parole hearing, the right to restitution, these are fundamental rights in my view, and fundamental rights belong in the constitution.”

Chief sponsor of the bill is Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, and the legislation, which went to the Rules Committee after its approval by Judiciary, could be on the Senate floor for a vote today.

Statutory law is essentially no law at all if people have no avenue of appeal when they are denied its protection. Marsy’s Law would give crime victims in Georgia that protection as a constitutional guarantee. It’s a guarantee the legislature and the voters of Georgia should unhesitatingly approve.

The other shoe …

Speaking of legislation, the Georgia House overwhelmingly passed a tax bill Wednesday that would replace the state’s progressive income tax with a flat tax of 5.4 percent. The bill now goes to the Senate.

This is obviously a savings for those at the high end of the income scale, whose state income taxes top out at 6 percent. The bill also includes an earned income tax credit for low-income Georgians.

If there’s a level of reaction just below “cautious optimism,” it might best be described as “cautious skepticism,” and that’s probably justified here. We need to see just what lawmakers come up with as a way to pay for the income taxes they’ve voted to cut. (We’re pretty sure the math of tax credits for low incomes won’t match up.)

Georgians need to be watching closely.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Crime victims need enforceable law."