Resolution Hopes To Change State Constitution To Enhance Victims' Rights

An effort is underway to change the state’s Constitution to give crime victim’s more rights. 

Virginia Lewis, of Tulsa, knows what it means to be a victim.  

First, at the hands of her father, who she said molested her repeatedly from the time she was 11 years old until she was 16.  

Then, she said, at the hands of a justice system that let her down.  

"Instead of being the end of my trauma at the beginning of my healing, it was just another victimization. My father would end up getting what was called a deferred prosecution agreement. Essentially a slap on the wrist,” Lewis said. “And his life will go on as normal."

Lewis said she suffered with anorexia and depression while her father, a Tulsa attorney, walked away without so much as a slap on the wrist.  

"There's no police record. He was never arrested,” she said. “He was able to continue to practice law. Essentially his life went on as normal."

Now, Lewis is backing an effort to change the state Constitution to give victims more rights.  

The law is called Marsy’s Law and is named for Marsalee Nicholas, a California college student killed by a stalker ex-boyfriend in 1983.  

Marsy’s Law would guarantee victims would be given information about services available to them and about the criminal case.  

Right now, there are dozens of laws on the books in Oklahoma with respect to victims’ rights.  

Resolution author, Rep. Scott Biggs, R-District 51, said the constitutional amendment would help solidify them.

"Some judges feel that the defendants’ rights in the Constitution trumps anything the state Legislature puts in state statute. So any protections we provide are trumped," Biggs said.

If the resolution passes in the Legislature, it will go to a vote of the people.

“It affords the victims dignity, and right now, the lack of legal recourse for victims is like a double victimization," Lewis said.