Crime Victims' Rights
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Victims' notification rights
The following agencies and individuals are required automatically to inform violent-crime victims of certain rights and information. Victims of other crimes and witnesses to crimes may take advantage of these rights by written request to the appropriate agency. Here is a list of agencies and information they can provide:
LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES, JUVENILE AUTHORITIES
- Case status, availability of victims' compensation services, emergency crisis intervention services, assistance in obtaining loss documentation, releases on bond or for any other reason, and any escape (within 24 hours) or recapture.
PROSECUTORS
- Case status (including submitted cases before a charging decision has been made, charged cases, and any final decision not to file charges), filing of charges, preliminary hearing dates, trial dates, continuances, and final disposition (within five days).
- Bail hearings, guilty pleas, pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity, hearings, sentencing and probation revocation hearings.
- Availability of victim services (including compensation, financial assistance, and emergency crisis intervention).
- Right to restitution and the availability of, and application process for, any witness fee to which a victim is entitled.
CUSTODIAL AUTHORITIES
- Upon written request to the appropriate custodial authority, including municipal or county detention or jail facilities, juvenile detention facilities, correctional facilities operated by the Department of Corrections, mental health facilities, and the Division of Youth Services.
NOTIFICATION RIGHTS
Notification requirements
All victims waive their rights to be notified if they fail to provide the appropriate agency or individual with their current address and telephone number or the address and phone number at which they wish to be notified.
- A defendant's projected release date and actual release date - on bond, work release, trial release or for any other reason, or escape (within 24 hours).
- Parole or release hearings, rescheduling of any hearings (no hearing shall be conducted without giving the victim a 30- day advance notice), and decision by a parole board, juvenile releasing authority, or circuit court presiding over releases for persons found not guilty by reason of insanity.
- Decision by the governor to commute a sentence or grant a pardon, or death of a defendant (must be notified within 30 days).
BOARD OF PROBATION AND PAROLE
- Probation and revocation hearings initiated by the board, and parole hearings.
- Final decisions to release the defendant made by the board.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
- Case status information throughout the appellate process. Crime victims and witnesses to crimes can, on request, obtain case status information throughout the appellate process from the Attorney General's Office. Requests to the Attorney General's Office can be submitted via an online form or by downloading and mailing the form on page 29 of the pdf version of this publication.
