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35 Geo. Mason U. C.R. L.J. 115 (2025)
Oral Victim Impact Statements in Capital Punishment Sentencing Are a Payne

handle is hein.journals/gmcvr35 and id is 119 raw text is: ORAL VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENTS IN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SENTENCING ARE A PAYNE Alyssa Berry* INTRODUCTION For most of American history, the legal system failed to provide crime victims with any rights.' Generally, crime was seen as a threat to the entire community, and the real flesh-and-blood victim was treated like just another piece of evidence, a mere exhibit to be discarded after the trial.2 As cases were adjudicated, the victim's right to information about the ongoing case, the right to participate in the court process, and the victim's opinion on the case were not given much consideration.3 To address the injustices and imbalances between the defendant and victims' interests, crime victims and activists came together - in a highly de-centralized social movement in the early 1970s - around the mission that crime victims should not be used to obtain a conviction and then be quickly discarded with no support.4 Rather, the activists' goal in the movement was to give victims a voice to advocate for their rights in the criminal legal system.5 As the social movement gained more support, lawmakers began to enact legislation to provide support to victims, such as crime victim compensation schemes and rape shield provisions.6 In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed a task force on the victims of crime, recommending various reforms to * J.D. 2025, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School. 1 Andrew J. Karmen, Who's Against Victims' Rights? The Nature of the Opposition to Pro- Victim Initiatives in Criminal Justice, 8 ST. JOHN'S J.C.R. ECON. DEV.157, 158 (1992). 2 Id.; U.S. DEP'T OF JUST., FINAL REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT'S TASK FORCE ON VICTIMS OF CRIME (1982) (describing insensitive treatment of rape victims). 3 See Karmen, supra note 1 (citing Robert Reiff, THE INVISIBLE VICTIM: THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM'S FORGOTTEN RESPONSIBILITY, 111 (1979) (criminal justice system is offender-oriented and produces social injustice for the victim)). 4 See Karmen, supra note 1, at 158-59. 5 See generally id. 6 Paul G. Cassell, In Defense of Victim Impact Statements, 6 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 611, 612-13 (2009). 115