[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 13, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2019-S2020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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 CRIME VICTIMS' RIGHTS WEEK AND THE JUSTICE FOR ALL REAUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, every year in April, we pause to observe 
National Crime Victims' Rights Week, and this year marks its 35th 
anniversary. Since 1981, in communities across the Nation, people have 
observed this week with candlelight vigils and public rallies to renew 
our commitment to crime victims and their families. Vermonters have 
always banded together to help crime victims and their families. That 
is just who we are, and I am proud of that long tradition. It is 
vitally important that we continue to recognize the needs of these 
survivors and work together to promote victims' rights and services.
  One of our most important tools to do so is the Victims of Crime Act 
of 1984 and the crime victims fund that it created. I strongly 
supported passage of this critical legislation, which has been the 
principal means through which the Federal Government has supported 
essential services for crime victims and their families for more than 
three decades. It is time to review and renew that law, and I have been 
working closely with Senator Grassley in that effort. Next week, the 
Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to assess the crime 
victims fund and discuss how to ensure that it continues to meet the 
changing needs of victims.
  The Justice for All Act is another important law that promotes 
victims' rights. I am working with Senator Cornyn to reauthorize this 
vital legislation. Our bill will further strengthen the rights of crime 
victims; improve the use of forensic evidence, including rape kits, to 
provide justice as swiftly as possible; and protect the innocent by 
improving access to post-conviction DNA testing.
  The Justice for All Reauthorization Act builds on the work I began in 
2000, when I introduced the Innocence Protection Act, which sought to 
ensure that defendants in the most serious cases receive competent 
representation and, where appropriate, access to post-conviction DNA 
testing. I served proudly as a prosecutor in Vermont for 8 years, and I 
believe that we must find those responsible for crimes and prosecute 
them. But we must also ensure that our system does not wrongly convict 
those who are innocent. DNA testing is often necessary to prove the 
innocence of individuals in cases where the system got it grievously 
wrong. ``Innocent until proven guilty'' is a hallmark of our criminal 
justice system, but when a person who has been found guilty is truly 
innocent, we cannot stand idly by. We must act to exonerate that 
person.
  The Innocence Protection Act passed as part of the original Justice 
for All Act in 2004, and since that time, at

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least 26 people have been exonerated through DNA testing funded by the 
legislation. In North Carolina, for example, a man was released after 
spending 37 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit. In 
Virginia, a man was released after spending 27 years in prison for 
violent rapes he did not commit. And in New Orleans, a man was released 
after spending 20 years in a State mental health hospital for an 
abduction and rape he did not commit. We must continue funding this 
critical post-conviction DNA testing since we know our system does not 
always get it right. It is an outrage when an innocent person is 
wrongly punished, and this injustice is compounded when the true 
perpetrator remains on the streets, able to commit more crimes. We are 
all less safe when the system gets it wrong.
  As we begin this year's Crime Victims' Rights Week, I look forward to 
working with Senators on both sides of the aisle to update and 
reauthorize both the Victims of Crime Act and the Justice for All 
Reauthorization Act. Survivors and their families deserve nothing less.

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