LANSING, MI (MPRN)-- Lawmakers in Lansing have been working on legislation in response to the Larry Nassar case. And while they’re at it, some say they might want to expand who has the automatic right to give an impact statement at a defendant’s sentencing.
Nassar is the former MSU sports doctor who will spend decades in prison for serial sexual assault. At his sentencing, women who were sexually assaulted, their parents, and even coaches were allowed to give an impact statement. But under current Michigan law, some of them could have been turned away by a judge.
The Crime Victim’s Rights Act includes laws on how the justice system has to treat victims. It lists an order for who gets to speak at sentencing. For example, if there’s a surviving parent, they would have a higher priority than grandparents, and the parent would get to speak, but not the grandparent. It also allows a judge to limit impact statements to only the direct victim of the crime where the victim is still alive.
In a prior case, multiple people in a victim’s family wanted to speak at a defendant’s sentencing. The court allowed it. When the defendant appealed, the Michigan Court of Appeals said it was okay for the court to let people outside of Crime Victim’s Rights Act speak.
Since then, the Court of Appeals has said the Crime Victim’s Rights Act does not limit who a judge can allow to speak at a sentencing hearing. There’s nothing in the law that says additional people can’t speak, but it’s up to a judge.
Andrea Bitely is a spokesperson for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. She said parents of victims are among those who deserve certainty their voices will be heard in sentencing hearings.
“They are in many ways just as much survivors and victims of crime as the people who were truly wronged and truly hurt by the crime itself,” she said.
In the Nassar case, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina allowed parents and coaches to speak along with the physical victims of abuse. However, that was at her discretion and part of a plea agreement.
A recent article in the Michigan Bar Journal calls for an amendment to the Crime Victim’s Rights Act to specifically include more groups of people and loved ones as victims and allow multiple groups of people to testify at sentencing.
“To identify all family members of deceased victims set forth in MCL 780.752(m)(ii) as victims for purposes of impact statements without regard to any order or conditions – would acknowledge the stark reality of a crime’s effect on families and bring our criminal code closer to the lives of those it governs,” the article said.