Political Quotes

“For example, let us assume that you have a single mother, a single parent, who is going to come to court to testify against a criminal defendant. That person may not be the victim in the sense of having been the person who was harmed, but perhaps she witnessed the activity, and she has to leave her child with a child care sitter or somebody to care for that child and has to pay those costs. Under this restitution bill, the court could order that the accused, who then becomes the convicted person once he is convicted of the crime, the judge could order him to pay restitution to this witness, the mother, who had to pay the child care fees and so on. So it is a very broad restitution bill. It leaves a lot of discretion to the judge, but it mandates that he compensate, at least through the order of restitution, the actual victim of the crime.”