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"Is Crime Victims Rights Law Being Misused in Environmental Cases?"

By Douglas A. Berman

The question in the title of this post is the headline of this new piece in The National Law Journal.  Here is how the effective piece begins: A law that was designed to empower crime victims and give them a stronger voice in the justice system is increasingly being used as a weapon to punish companies accused of environmental crimes. To the chagrin of corporate defense lawyers, the 2004 Crime Victims Rights Act is increasingly turning up in the government's environmental prosecutions, with victims fighting to be heard, especially at sentencing. The issue has triggered robust legal debate. Defense lawyers argue that the five-year-old statute is being used for unintended purposes. They also contend it gives prosecutors an unfair advantage by letting them use victims to play on the courts' emotions at sentencing...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 28, 2009 (boomark / email).