Nationwide Victories for Crime Victims
It's hard to believe that the midterm elections were only one week ago! With all of this election coverage, the Marsy's Law for Wisconsin team wanted to be sure that our grassroots supporters heard the news about Marsy's Law's impressive nationwide victories: six states voted to enshrine the rights of crime victims in their state constitutions alongside those of defendants. Voters in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia overwhelmingly approved ballot measures in all six states to secure and increase victims’ rights.
While each state will benefit in different ways based off their individual amendments, they will all add Marsy’s Law to their state constitution to ensure victims know their rights and are able to use them during the criminal justice process. With victories in these six states, 52 million additional Americans have now been granted equal rights thanks to Marsy's Law.
The fight to ensure equal rights for crime victims will continue in Wisconsin where we are working tirelessly to ensure that our bipartisan legislation will be passed by the State Senate and Assembly in January so that Marsy's Law can be put before Wisconsin's voters in April of 2019.
Unlike many other states, Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin follows a proud tradition in our state of protecting victims’ rights. Wisconsin already has a constitutional amendment on victims’ rights that passed in 1993, and was the first state in the nation to pass a Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights. The state also is recognized as having some of the strongest statutory rights for victims in the country. This means the changes we are proposing are about making sure victims’ rights are truly equal alongside the constitutional rights of the accused – nothing more, nothing less.
With your help, we hope that in a few short months Wisconsin's voters will have the opportunity to follow those in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia in making Marsy's Law a reality for crime victims.
Sincerely,
Luke