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Crime & Justice

Protecting the Rights of Crime Victims | Using DNA to Solve Crimes | Streamlined Appeals of Capital Sentences | Updating the Law to Account for New Technologies | Illegal Drugs | Judges | Protecting Second Amendment Rights

Protecting the Rights of Crime Victims

Our Constitution and laws accord numerous rights to those accused of perpetrating crimes, but until recently, the victims of these crimes did not have the same protections; indeed, they were not even guaranteed the right to be informed, present, or heard while a court was considering the case against those accused harming them.

To help remedy this shortcoming and balance the scales of justice, I sponsored legislation with California’s Democratic Senator, Dianne Feinstein, which became the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, or CVRA, in 2004.  Our legislation finally guarantees crime victims the rights to be informed, present, and heard in judicial proceedings relevant to their case – the least the system owes to those it has failed to protect.

Consider the case of Nila Lynn of Phoenix.  Nila was murdered at a homeowner’s association meeting on April 19, 2000 by a man who was unhappy with the way the association had trimmed the bushes in his yard.  She died on the floor in the arms of her husband, Duane, three months short of their 50th wedding anniversary.  Duane wanted his wife’s killer to be sentenced to life without parole, rather than have to wait through the endless appeals of a capital case.  But he never had the opportunity to make this recommendation to the judge.  The killer received the death sentence.

To help ensure that the interests of victims of federal crimes like the Lynns are never again ignored by our criminal justice system, the CVRA grants them the following rights:

  • The right to be reasonably protected from the accused;
  • The right to reasonable, accurate, and timely notice of any public proceeding involving the accused, and notice of the accused’s escape or release;
  • The right to be included in any such public proceeding;
  • The right to be reasonably heard at any public proceeding involving the release, plea, or sentencing of the accused;
  • The right to confer with the attorney for the government in the case;
  • The right to full and timely restitution as provided by law;
  • The right to proceedings free from unreasonable delay; and
  • The right to be treated with fairness and with respect for their dignity and privacy.

The law requires federal law-enforcement officials to make their “best efforts to see that crime victims are notified of, and accorded” these rights.  It also grants victims legal standing to enforce these rights, including the right to seek enforcement relief in federal appeals courts, and provides legal-assistance grants to establish programs for the enforcement of crime victims’ rights.

To ensure that crime victims indeed have full access to the rights and protections made available to them by the CVRA, I asked the Judicial Conference of the United States to amend the criminal rules of procedure to acknowledge and protect these new rights.  The Conference acted favorably on my request.

As a result of the full complement of rights and protections that flow from the CVRA, victims will no longer be excluded from participating in federal cases against their attackers.  In fact, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the CVRA gives victims “an indefeasible right to speak” at court proceedings.  The Ninth Circuit’s holding used the CVRA to allow victims who were collectively swindled out of nearly $100 million to “regain a sense of dignity and respect” by speaking out in court about the lost retirement savings, bankrupted businesses, and ruined lives the defendant had caused.

 

Using DNA to solve crimes

The expanded use of DNA provides an opportunity to better ensure justice, both for those accused of committing crimes and those who are victims.  DNA can either exonerate the innocent, or facilitate the apprehension and conviction of the guilty.  By helping to take sometimes violent offenders off the streets, DNA can help prevent other law-abiding citizens from becoming the victims of terrible crimes.

With that in mind, I helped write legislation in 2006 that expands the use of DNA to solve crimes.  Now law, it authorizes the federal government to collect DNA samples from persons arrested for federal crimes and from illegal immigrants in detention-and-removal proceedings.  It authorizes states to add analyses of DNA taken from arrestees to the national DNA database so that these analyses can be compared to crime-scene evidence from around the country.  It also authorizes states to use federal DNA grants to analyze arrestee samples. 

Twenty-four states, including Arizona, have now enacted arrestee-DNA sampling laws. As a result of these various changes, state law enforcement authorities can now check the DNA collected from an arrestee against a national database and learn if that individual is linked to evidence left at a crime scene anywhere else in the United States.  This will help to identify dangerous predators before they commit more crimes.  As of January 2011, CODIS, the computer software program that operates local, state, and national DNA databases, has assisted in nearly 4,000 criminal investigations in Arizona and over 131,000 investigations nationally.

Recently, use of the national DNA database led Chandler police to Santos Basilio O’Dell in connection with the 2004 rape of a 17-year-old girl.  DNA evidence collected from the teenager matched the DNA from O'Dell, who was required to provide a sample after pleading guilty to a crime in Orange County, California.  On February 2, 2011, O'Dell was arrested in Newport Beach, California on an Arizona warrant.

 

Streamlined Appeals of Capital Sentences

Committing crimes against fellow citizens violates the respect for others’ unalienable rights that allows society to function.  No one has the right to take another human life, for example.  Still, we take great pains to protect the rights of the accused and ensure that justice is done.  That is particularly important when society imposes the ultimate punishment: the death penalty.   

Defendants have the right to fair and timely review.  Their victims have the right to a prompt resolution of their cases, including the application of an appropriate punishment for the offender.

In Arizona and other states within the Ninth Circuit, it was not unheard of for death-row convicts to spend 10 or 20 years appealing their convictions in the federal courts (and federal appeals begin only after state appeals are completed).  In the vast majority of these cases, the prisoner would not even present a reasonable argument that he or she was innocent of the crime.  Such endless delays caused the death penalty to lose its deterrent effect on other criminals, and they proved to be unnecessarily painful for the surviving members of the victim’s family, who would have to watch cases grind forward in the courts and in press coverage, sometimes for decades. 

With that in mind, I won approval of an amendment in 2006 to ensure prompt federal court reviews of state-imposed death sentences.  The new law authorizes the Justice Department to certify the eligibility of states for these special expedited procedures. 

The new system authorized by my amendment established a series of deadlines to ensure timely federal court review of state death sentences if a state agrees to provide post-conviction counsel to its capital prisoners.

 

Updating the Law to Account for New Technologies

As technology evolves, so too must the law.  The Internet and other evolving technologies can provide a wealth of information and opportunity to those who use it with good intentions.  But it can also present new opportunities for those who would use it to prey on their fellow citizens.  I have sponsored bills designed to crack down on criminals who evade the law by using new technology.

Identity Theft

New technology has made it much easier for criminals to steal others’ identities and use them to commit fraud and other crimes.  Victims can lose assets and their good credit.  It can take hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to restore their good names.  Arizonans are particularly vulnerable, suffering more cases of identity theft in 2010 than residents of any other state but Florida, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

To learn about efforts I’ve undertaken to combat identity theft, helpful hints on how to avoid becoming a victim, and what steps you should take if your personal information has been compromised, I invite you to visit the Identity Theft section of my website. 

 

Illegal Drugs

Illicit Drug Use

The Office of National Drug Control Policy originally designated Arizona as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) in 1990, and since then, state, local, federal, and tribal law enforcement have worked cooperatively to disrupt trafficking routes and seize supplies of illegal drugs entering Arizona.  In 2011 law enforcement confiscated 2,789 pounds of cocaine, 415 kilograms of heroin, 561,411 kilograms of marijuana, and 1464 kilograms of methamphetamine in the Arizona HIDTA region.

Drug-Related Violence

I have supported a multi-faceted, well-funded approach to fighting drug violence, including effective anti-drug education programs, increased penalties for drug offenders, and funding for programs and resources to reduce border violence.  For example, I was an original cosponsor of the Gang Abatement and Prevention Act, which would impose tough penalties for violent acts that are committed in connection with drug trafficking.  In addition, I cosponsored the Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act, which would authorize funding for programs to prevent the sale and transfer of firearms to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

These efforts will help control substance abuse and drug-related violence in Arizona.  But any strategy to curb drug trafficking, and the violent activity that is associated with it, must include steps to gain control of our southern border.  To that end, I introduced legislation with Senator McCain in 2011 to implement a 10-point plan to combat illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and violent activity along the border.

Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine remains a persistent problem in Arizona and requires both a domestic and international response.

The Mexican government’s adoption of policies to restrict imports and better regulate the sale of precursor chemicals is promising, but the ease with which Mexican drug trafficking organizations continue to transport methamphetamine and other drugs across the border is just further evidence of how important it is to secure the southern border.

Congress must also act to reduce meth use and limit domestic production.  I was an original cosponsor of the Combat Methamphetamine Enhancement Act, which was signed into law on October 12, 2010.  This new law will help reduce domestic meth production by prohibiting sales of precursor chemicals to unlicensed individuals.  I also cosponsored the Combating Dangerous Synthetic Stimulants Act, which would ban the production and sale of two synthetic substances that mimic methamphetamine or cocaine. 

 

Judges

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I take great care in examining each nominee’s record to ensure that the nominee demonstrates personal integrity, a commitment to the rule of law, and a judicial temperament. 

While in the Senate, I have helped secure an additional five judgeships for the Federal District Court in Arizona.  Nevertheless, Arizona still has a need for even more.  I am working to secure two additional judgeships for the District Court in Arizona, as well as preserve a temporary judgeship I helped create in 2003. 

 

Protecting Second Amendment Rights

When contemplating the regulation of firearms, I am always mindful that our Constitution protects an individual’s right to own a gun.  Efforts to restrict a law-abiding citizen’s rights do not prevent criminals from obtaining guns, nor do they deter criminals from committing crimes with guns.

In 2008, I joined other members of Congress in filing a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Second Amendment clearly protects an individual’s right to bear arms.  The brief was filed in connection with the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller.  The Court ultimately held that the federal government – as well as the District of Columbia – could not prohibit an individual from owning firearms.

In 2010, I also joined a number of other Members of Congress in filing an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case of McDonald v. City of Chicago.  Our brief argued, and the court agreed, that the Second Amendment’s guarantee of an individual right to own firearms also prevents state and local governments from prohibiting the possession of firearms.

 

Printable Version

Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security

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