A set of payments geared towards survivors of crime obtained a listening to Tuesday earlier than the Michigan Home Judiciary Committee.
The four-bill “Defending Michigan Crime Victims Bundle” goals to develop crime sufferer’s companies.
One invoice would amend a present crime sufferer’s rights legislation to incorporate crimes like bodily threatening a state well being division worker beneath the banner of a “severe misdemeanor.”
Home Judiciary Committee Chair Graham Filler (R-DeWitt) is that invoice’s sponsor. He stated that might guarantee survivors get the sources they want.
“All we’re doing is saying there are new crimes not listed in Michigan legislation and we need to be certain the victims companies match up. So, we’re simply matching up two sections of the legislation. That’s all we’re doing. We’re not creating new severe misdemeanors,” Filler stated.
Throughout Tuesday’s listening to, questions arose over the impression the invoice might have on the expungement course of. State Rep. David LaGrand (D-Grand Rapids) introduced up some particular crimes listed within the invoice.
“If we need to give entry to companies to people who’re victims [of] that crime, nice. But when we need to make it more durable to get these crimes expunged, that’s definitely not what I’d be occupied with entertaining,” he stated.
Two different payments within the bundle would enable the blurring of a survivor’s face throughout court docket proceedings and allow distant sufferer impression statements. Filler stated that’s necessary since courts have held some proceedings remotely in the course of the pandemic.
“From a sufferer’s perspective, do you really need — after being victimized after which seeing the one that did this to you get convicted — do you at all times need to go into that room with the one that’s victimized you once more?” he requested. “I might argue that a few of them don’t.”
One other invoice within the bundle would enable prosecutors or legislation enforcement officers to share a home or sexual abuse survivor’s contact data with service suppliers.
