Guidelines issued on victim impact statements
Pitfalls and legal difficulties in writing statements as well as what families should say in court about a loved one who was killed are included in the recommendations for those affected by homicide.
The guide for victim impact statements comes after legislation introduced earlier this year which formalised the right of relatives to speak in court about their lost loved ones before sentencing is decided.
The guide for families will be released today by Advocates of Victims of Homicide (AdVIC), a support group for families of victims of homicide, and was written with the assistance of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Group co-founder Joan Deane explained: “The whole area of victim impact statements has been extremely difficult for a long time. For a while, a family were not entitled to give one and it was only at the discretion of a judge.
“It’s challenging to put one together, not least because of the legal pitfalls that a family can fall into.”
A sample statement template is included in the guide for relatives of victims of homicide, which also advises them on what and what not to include in their account before the court.
It advises families that their public comments in court can be taken into account by a judge when deciding on the appropriate sentence for an offender. Statements can be drawn up by multiple family members and also include written reports from professionals such as doctors or counsellors.
Relatives are told the statement may be the only chance for a family to take part in the criminal case and to tell not just a judge and a jury but also the offender what their loved one was really like.
Statements are only made if there is a conviction, but must not include information about the offender outside the case, the guide notes. It adds: “No venomous attack on the defendant is permitted.”
A copy of the victim impact statement must also be presented to the prosecution counsel, the offender and the offender’s counsel before being read out in court, it is also stipulated.
The guide will be distributed to families at an open meeting for relatives of victims of homicide at the Metropole Hotel in Cork today and can be obtained on www.advic.ie, the support group’s website.
FOR Gemma Coleman, every day brings back memories of her son and the difficult court trial her family went through.
Her son, Patrick, who was known to his friends as Pat or “Happy,” was stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle while walking home in Limerick in September 2007 and later bled to death.
The teenage boy who murdered her son, a father-of-two, after he innocently knocked over his bottle of beer, was jailed for 10 years last year.
Ms Coleman, who has four other children and is now living in Sligo, recalls the criminal trial and the trauma of putting together a victim impact statement about the killing.
“We were just trying to tell how we would never forget seeing him on the slab in the morgue. We will never forget the screams of the children when they found out their dad had been killed. We were able to put that and more into a statement and say it on the day. This guide puts a structure on your thoughts — things you can remember about your loved one.
“I had 11 pages for our statement and that was ridiculous. The girls [Pat’s sisters] all went off with the ideas that we had and they all wrote a page each and then we did a page and a half for the statement. We found it very difficult to do. It took us a day and a half of drinking tea and the girls and myself putting it together. It was very traumatic. You can talk about the crime but you cannot talk about the perpetrator because as it was he hadn’t been sentenced at that point even though he had pleaded guilty. You can mention the horrific effect on your family and life but there are certain things you cannot go over and you have to stick within those guidelines.”
Ms Coleman, a member of AdVIC, welcomed the release of the support group’s guide for victim impact statements.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
