Judiciary

Committee on Judiciary

My name is Wayne Brown and I am extremely honored to be selected as chair of the committee on Judicial Reform. Since I am an engineer and not an attorney, I’m sure it was not my educational background or professional experience that fulfilled any prerequisites for this position as committee chair, but rather my recent life’s experience. Therefore, this first article will be dedicated to the Victim Impact Statement. Unless an individual’s life has been impacted by the murder of a loved one, the Victim Impact Statement has very little or no meaning. However, the affect of this part of the Official Code of Georgia on the sentencing phase of any death penalty case depends greatly on the interpretation of the trial judge.

Victim Impact Statements

I can tell you from personal experience that most people have no idea of the manner in which Georgia’s Victim Impact Statement is limiting, cruel, and discriminating. After working with the District Attorney and his staff, one might conclude that our legislators employed a bunch of death-row inmates to assist in writing the victim impact statement guidelines. After reviewing the Official Code of Georgia that pertains to these guidelines, the term “criminal friendly” comes to mind.

The victim’s family must prepare the statement months and sometime years in advance of the trial. However, the witnesses for the defendant do not have to prepare a statement in advance of the trial’s sentencing phase. These witnesses can spontaneously describe the individual that has been found guilty of brutally murdering their child or family member as a wonderful person.

The defense can partition the judge to eliminate some of the impact statements simply because they think there are too many. The Judge can also arbitrarily eliminate some because he/she may think there are too many.

The defense can partition the judge to eliminate part of individual impact statements because the wording might be too unfavorable to the guilty. The judge can also reject part of individual impact statements because he/she thinks the wording is too unfavorable to the guilty. The defense can partition the judge to eliminate the use of the word “child”. Think how you would feel about not being permitted to describe your daughter as your child.

It gets worse. The judge can eliminate you from the courtroom during the trial because you are scheduled to deliver your victim impact statement during the sentencing phase.

Analyzing the two Official Codes of Georgia concerning the victim impact statement can identity the favorable leanings toward the defendant. Paragraph 1 of subsection (e) of O.C.GA. 17-10-1.1 allows the defendant access to victim impact statements prior to any plea bargaining. Remembering that victim impact statements are given during the sentencing phase of a trial, i.e. after an individual has been found guilty, this paragraph should be deleted.

Paragraph 3 of subsection (e) of O.C.GA. 17-10-1.1 allows the defendant to partition the judge to strike any part of the statement in advance of the trial. As mentioned earlier, the witnesses for the defense can testify impromptu. This certainly appears to discriminate against the witnesses for the victim. The witnesses for the victim should be afforded the same opportunity to testify as the witnesses for the defense.

The Official Code of Georgia 17-10-1.2 defines additional guidelines for the victim impact statement. The last sentence in paragraph 1 of subsection (a) should be altered so as to delete the following; “and to such a degree as not to inflame or unduly prejudice the jury”. At this time, the individual has already been found guilty. How inflammatory is it to murder another human being?

A trial judge has great latitude with these two sections of Georgia’s Code. The reform required here is to rewrite O.C.GA. 17-10-1.1 and 17-10-1.2 and this must be accomplished through Georgia’s legislature. My estimation of the difficulty level required to make this change is high, but not impossible. The reason for this is that many legislators feel compassion toward the criminal and the victim impact statement is not a high-profile issue. Therefore, how can the importance of this issue be conveyed to our legislators?

Georgia Code: O.C.GA. 17-10-1.1 and 17-10-1.2.

Website: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_codes_detail.pl?code=17-10-1.1