Abstract
The American criminal justice system "has long functioned on the assumption that crime victims should behave like good Victorian children-seen but not heard." I As a result of this assumption, for centuries, crime victims and their families have been excluded from participation in criminal proceedings, often leaving them secondary victims to the very system to which they had turned for justice? In an effort to end this tradition, in October 2004, the United States Congress enacted the "the most sweeping federal victims' rights law in the history of the nation," the Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy Preston, Louarna Gillis, and Nita Lynn Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA). This historic piece of legislation was specifically designed to provide crime victims with substantive and procedural rights enforceable in federal criminal proceedings. To ensure that these rights are not capriciously denied, the CVRA also grants crime victims the right to appeal any district court decision denying them anyone of these rights through a writ of mandamus, which the Act requires appellate courts to "take up and decide." Congress's use of this seen1ingly mandatory "take up and decide" language in conjunction with the term "mandamus," a traditionally discretionary writ, has caused much debate among United States circuit courts regarding the appropriate standard of review for these appeals, currently resulting in a fourcircuit split. This Note resolves this debate through the use of statutory interpretation. Part II briefly discusses the history of the crime victims' rights movement and provides a general overview of the 2004 Crime Victims' Rights Act. Part III explores the four-circuit split that has emerged over the CVRA's standard of review and briefly discusses the prevailing arguments on each side of the issue. Finally, this Note concludes by arguing that the CVRA's enforcement provision entitles crime victims to ordinary appellate review of district court decisions denying their rights and offers some potential solutions for resolution of the current circuit split.
Recommended Citation
Joffee, Steven
(2009)
"Validating Victims: Enforcing Victims' Rights through Mandatory Mandamus,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 2009:
No.
1, Article 11.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2009/iss1/11