A South Dakota House panel is passing legislation that asks voters to mend Marsy’s Law, and put some of those constitutional guarantees into law.
House Joint Resolution 1004 asks South Dakota voters to change the current statute by having victims request to prevent disclosure of public information.
Pennington County State’s Attorney Mark Vargo says the change works better for his office. He says Marsy’s Law is stretching his office’s budget.
“If we have to treat every petty theft as if it was a rape, and every time there was a misdemeanor crime, we have to put full resources into dealing with that person, like we deal with the more serious crimes. The victims of the most serious crimes are the ones that are going to suffer the most,” Vargo says. “Because we only have a limited amount of resources. We want to make sure we’re putting the most dollars and the most effort into the victims that need the most help.”
In 2016, voters approved what’s billed as the 'Crime Victim’s Bill of Rights' much to the objection of the criminal justice community in the state.
Speaker of the House Mark Mickelson is spearheading a compromise with the Marsy’s Law organization.
That includes House Bill 1174, which puts provisions of the crimes victims bill of rights into state statute.
Marsy’s Law of South Dakota testified in favor of amending what passed in 2016.