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Video Transcribed:
What about the victims when it comes to State Question 805? I’m Oklahoma attorney James Wirth, and I’m doing a series of seven videos regarding questions related to State Question 805, and this one deals with the victims.
And yes, there are provisions related to victims in State Question 805. Like the Victims’ Bill of Rights that has been passed in Oklahoma, victims have certain rights.
And because State Question 805 does have a retroactive application, it is important. And basically, what it says is that if you are a registered victim with the Department of Corrections, you are entitled to notice if your perpetrator files a request for sentence modification based on State Question 805.
If you were a victim of a crime, you’re concerned about this, then one, if this passes, you’re definitely going to want to make sure that you are listed and registered with the Department of Corrections as a victim.
But two, it may also affect how you may vote on this issue. At the very least, it does provide for notice and opportunity to be heard at that hearing. That said, although you have notice of the hearing and opportunity to be heard, it does take discretion away from the judge in maintaining a sentence that is for nonviolent offenses, that is beyond the maximum sentence without sentence enhancement.
So if your perpetrator got a sentence that is outside the range of punishment for the offense, but for the prior felony convictions, then that does not give the discretion to the judge to keep the same sentence.
It requires the judge to re-sentence them somewhere within the current range of punishment for the offense. But again, this only applies to nonviolent offenses as that term is defined by statute, which I covered in a previous video. If you have any questions about that or how to get on the Registered Victim List with the Department of Corrections, you can contact an attorney at my office by going to makelaweasy.com.
