Ideas for Change

New legislation is necessary in order to protect victims of crime from the arbitrary "dropping" of cases by Commonwealth/ District Attorneys who seek to protect thier records in order to garner re- election and further thier own political careers. Below is an exploration of ways to afford this protection:

*Civilian Review of the Commonwealth Attorney:

- Complaint Review Form filled out and available to the public

- Exact statistics on number of cases brought before the prosecutor and the number of cases that are actually tried should be compiled and made available to the public.

- Without such records, it is impossible to make an informed decision regarding voting for a Commonwealth Attorney.

*Create an Avenue of Appeal for the survivor of a crime who is in disagreement with the decision of the Commonwealth Attorney:

- A Special Grand Jury system already exists in Virginia, in part, to compel reluctant witnesses to testify; this system could also be utilized when a victim wishes to proceed and the prosecutor is reluctant.

- This would take much of the bias out of such decisions and limit the possibility of prosecutorial “dumping” of traditionally “difficult to prove” cases.

*Establish Accountability- a process by which a victim can lodge a complaint against a Commonwealth/ District Attorney:

- This would allow the dissenting victim to seek a declatory judgment against a Commonwealth Attorney who he/she feels has broken their vows of office.

-This judgment, although NOT reversing the CA’s decision, would become attached to that CA’s record for review by the public as another means to make an informed decision regarding voting for that elected office.

*Grant writing and funding for more Assistant Prosecutors:

- More manpower equals more cases heard.

- coming forward to report/ prosecute a crime is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Prosecutors should be educated on the reactions of victims and the hurdles that they face.