CRM/LAW C165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Austin Sarat
30 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Victims
• victims of murder
o family and friends
• victims – why not?
o legal system
▪ contrast to civil war
▪ state v. defendant
▪ victim has NO legal role
▪ should it be different?
• other legal systems
• vendettas
• the Victims’ Rights Movement
o problem of legal standing
o until recently victims were ignored or treated poorly
▪ uninformed
▪ unconstituted
▪ sometimes “put on trial”
• especially sexual assault victims
• Rise of “victims’ rights” movement
o Mothers Against Drunk Driving
o Broader victims’ organizations
▪ Justice for All
o state-sponsored victims’ offices
o great political power
o give voice to victims
o “seeks participation and power by making the victim the symbolic heart of
modern legality”
▪ Austin Sarat
• closure
o achieved by ultimate punishment?
o problems
▪ evidence that executions really provide closure is mixed
▪ closure takes so long to achieve, it is almost prolonged torture
• families might be better off with a quick life sentence, even
a plea bargain
• problems with victims’ rights organizations
o hi-jacking of state-sponsored offices by pro-DP advocates
▪ Houston Crime Victims Advocate
o denial of comfort/services to anti-death penalty victims
o Nebraska – denial of right to speak before clemency board when speaking
in favor of clemency
o pressure on victims to support prosecution’s effort to get death penalty
▪ as a means of valuing the victim
o are prosecutors/politicians using victims?
▪ Stevenson: “an absolute of victims”
▪ would victims be better served by crime prevention measures?
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