Please vote NO on this constitutional amendment. Like many of these victims’ rights amendments, they sound reasonable on a superficial level, but there are many aspects of this amendment that undermine the foundation of a fair criminal justice system. For example, the alleged victim could be allowed to withhold evidence and cause an innocent person who was falsely accused to end up in prison. Our system is built on the fact that you are innocent until proven guilty. Also, our state constitution and our state statutes already have many protections for victims. Unfortunately, this amendment goes way too far and undermines that basic tenets of the Wisconsin judicial system. This amendment will probably pass because there has been so much misinformation concerning this amendment. And, of course, we are all totally sympathetic to the plight of an innocent victim, but we don’t want to cavalierly throw away our basic rights.
Please vote NO and protect the integrity of our criminal justice system.
The Marsy’s Law Crime Victims’ Rights Amendment is one of several items on the ballot on April 7. See all of our endorsements here.
