Law enforcement officers shouldn't use Marsy's Law to hide public information | Our View - Yahoo News
No reasonable person could be against protecting the rights of crime victims.
However, as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And it's in that light Florida residents should view attempts to use Marsy's Law to keep secret information that should be, and otherwise would be, available to the public.
Voters in the Sunshine State narrowly approved Florida's version of Marsy's Law in 2018. The law's intent — to give crime victims rights comparable to those accused of crimes — seems straightforward enough.
The exact language of the voter-approved amendment read: "Creates constitutional rights for victims of crime; requires courts to facilitate victims’ rights; authorizes victims to enforce their rights throughout criminal and juvenile justice processes. Requires judges and hearing officers to independently interpret statutes and rules rather than deferring to government agency’s interpretation. Raises mandatory retirement age of state judges from seventy to seventy-five years; deletes authorization for judges to complete term if one-half of term has been served by retirement age."
It's fair to question whether including the part about the retirement age for judges violated the spirit, if not the letter, of a provision in state law requiring ballot measures to address only a single topic. That's a debate for another day.
Yet it's important to note what the amendment didn't say.
It didn't say law enforcement officials could use the law as a pretext for withholding the names of people killed in traffic accidents, as the Florida Highway Patrol routinely does.
Nor does it say the names of law enforcement officers who shoot and kill people should be kept secret, using the twisted logic the officers are "victims" because they are involved in violent encounters while in the line of duty.
In late March, two Indian River County deputy sheriffs fatally shot a man with apparent mental health issues at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital. The names of the officers involved in the shooting haven't been released because the sheriff's office is citing Marsy's Law.
This interpretation of Marsy's Law prompted a in a similar case involving two Tallahassee police officers whose identities were not released following shootings.
It would be refreshing if sheriffs in the three Treasure Coast counties, including , took similar positions.
source: https://news.yahoo.com/law-enforcement-officers-shouldnt-marsys-100015774.html
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