Hope on the Horizon: a Statement of Intent

As our current system of justice stands, a crime could literally occur in front of a prosecutor- and if he/she should choose not to prosecute... there would be NO FORCE which could compel them to do so. This unbridled and arbitrary power is unique among elected positions in the United States government.

The heart of the matter is that there is no system of checks and balances upon the office of the Commonwealth Attorney and no avenue of complaint or disagreement for a victim who wishes to pursue prosecution of her attacker (or really any person of any crime for that matter). Further complicating this, the Commonwealth Attorney is not required to keep ANY record of the number of case brought before him for prosecution versus the number of cases that he/she took to trial. Nor is he required to keep any type of record of his reason for denying prosecution to cases in which the victim/witness wished to proceed. This leaves the dissenting victim, completely bound and silenced by the institutional "good faith" and free reign inherent to this elected office.

In the pages of this website, I hope to compile and share suggestions for establishing a measure of accountability and fairness in the system.

In my dealings with the Williamsburg/James City County Commonwealth Attorney's office, I went through A LOT of pain, but I learned so much. I work in the advocacy and support of rape survivors now. I have made it my life’s mission to investigate and explore what went wrong in my case, what goes wrong SO OFTEN, for SO MANY WOMEN… so that I can research, propose and advocate for the necessary changes. I mean to ensure that NO ONE is EVER silenced again, the way that I have been silenced- the way that I have seen SO MANY OTHERS silenced by this system.