“We were very fortunate to get a positive ruling on that,” said Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr.
Marsy’s Law is named after a woman born in Ohio who was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend in California in 1983. Ohio voters passed the measure by a wide margin in 2017, but it didn’t fully go into effect until this month because it needed lawmakers to pass legislation putting it into action, which they did last year with a bill sponsored by state Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering.
Heck said Marsy’s Law created the Ohio Crime Victims Bill of Rights and called the constitutional amendment a “positive change.”
“People often, especially victims, talk about how defendants are the ones who have rights, they have all the rights and crime victims do not,” he said. “That’s now changed, and we’re very sensitive to that.”
The prosecutor listed the many rights available for crime victims during a recent press conference, including reasonable notice and the right to attend court hearings; the right to be informed if an offender is released from custody or sentenced; or if the offender received incarceration or probation and if probation is terminated.
Heck said his office was following many of the policies passed in Marsy’s Law years before the constitutional amendment passed.
Under Marsy’s Law, Ohio victims also have the right to ask that their names and addresses are not disclosed to the defendant, the defense attorney or during a court hearing.
Heck said that all people hope to never be the victim of a crime, but resources exist for anyone needing assistance.
Sandy Hunt, director of the victim and witness division of the prosecutor’s office, said her division offers 24-hour crisis intervention and works with victims of crime to inform them of their rights. Her division also responds to hospitals’ emergency departments to provide assistance to survivors of sexual assault.
The county’s crisis line can be reached at 937-225-5623, Hunt said.
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