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Eleventh Circuit grants mandamus in CVRA case

By Douglas A. Berman

The Eleventh Circuit issued late today an important CVRA ruling with a short opinion in In Re: Janice W. Stewart And Other Borrower-Crime Victims, No. 08-16753-G (11th Cir. Dec. 19, 2008) (available here).  Here is how the opinion starts: The Crime Victims? Rights Act (?CVRA?), 18 U.S.C. § 3771, provides that victims of a federal crime may appear and be heard during some phases of the prosecution of the person charged with the crime. The CVRA requires the Government to ?make [its] best efforts to see? that the court (in which the prosecution is pending) permits the victim to appear and be heard.  If the court refuses to allow the victim to appear, the victim may move the United States Court of Appeals for a writ of mandamus. Several persons claiming to be victims of the crime charged in United States v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 19, 2008 (boomark / email).