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Epstein Saga Puts Spotlight on Crime Victim's Rights Act
The significance of the Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA), which is intended to guarantee crime victims a role in federal criminal proceedings, has been highlighted in the case of Jeffrey E. Epstein, the financier accused of sexually trafficking underage girls. Because the government's noncompliance with the CVRA in negotiating Epstein's plea deal in 2008 led to the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander R. Acosta, losing his cabinet position as Secretary of Labor, practitioners can expect prosecutors and judges to be more focused on the CVRA going forward.
Worthy of the attention of white-collar practitioners is the currently pending motion by two victims in the Epstein case to rescind the key portions of Epstein's non-prosecution agreement — those that barred his prosecution in the Southern District of Florida — based on the court's prior finding that the government violated the CVRA. Although Epstein's death in an apparent suicide now makes it unlikely that the court will rule on that aspect of the motion, the possibility that a violation of the CVRA could result in the rescission of a non-prosecution agreement has implications for white-collar practitioners and their clients.
Crime Victims' Rights Act
Congress enacted the CVRA, codified at 18 U.S.C. §3771, in 2004 "to make crime victims full participants in the criminal justice system." It requires federal employees engaged in criminal investigations and prosecutions "to make their best efforts to see that crime victims are notified of, and accorded," a list of 10 enumerated rights. These rights have been found to attach before formal charges are filed and courts are instructed to "ensure that crime victims are afforded" the rights therein.
Among the rights guaranteed crime victims by the CVRA is the right to "reasonable, accurate, and timely notice" of any public court or parole proceeding and the right to be reasonably heard at any public proceeding in the district court involving release, plea, sentencing, or any parole proceeding. In addition, the CVRA mandates that prosecutors and government attorneys confer with crime victims and give them timely notice of any plea bargain or deferred prosecution agreement.
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