Kevin Brady: “this week is a special time in our country. It is designated as National Crime Victims Rights Week. It is an opportunity…”

“this week is a special time in our country. It is designated as National Crime Victims Rights Week. It is an opportunity to try to begin to balance the scales of justice that are weighted so heavily in favor of the accused and so lightly weighted in favor of the victims of violent crime. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of a constitutional amendment proposed by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), Congressman and Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, that attempts to restore and provide really for the first time in this country solid, irreversible rights for victims of violent crime. What this constitutional amendment does is that it provides that victims have the right to be given notice, to know when there are public hearings related to the crime in which they have been victimized, to be heard if they are present, and if they are not, to submit a written statement at all public proceedings where a sentencing occurs or a plea bargain is agreed to or there is a prospect that the criminal will be released from custody.”