Victims' Rights Amendment in the 106th Congress: Overview of Suggestions to Amend the Constitution

Abstract:

Thirty-three states have added a victims rights amendment to their state constitutions. Both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings on similar proposals in the 106th Congress to amend the United States Constitution (S.J.Res. 3 introduced by Senator Kyl for himself and Senator Feinstein and H.J.Res. 64 introduced by Representative Chabot). The Senate Committee initially reported out an amended version of S.J.Res. 3 without a written report, but issued a report prior to floor consideration of the reported proposal, S.Rept. 106-254. Neither S.J.Res. 3 nor H.J.Res. 64 were ever brought to a vote on the floor. This is an overview of those proposals and is an abbreviated form of Victims’ Rights Amendment: Proposals to Amend the United States Constitution in the 106th Congress, CRS Report RL30525. Authorities identified there have been omitted here in the interests of brevity.