CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION "The Victims' Bill of Rights"
ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
SEC. 28. (a) The People of the State of California find and declare
that the enactment of comprehensive provisions and laws ensuring a
bill of rights for victims of crime, including safeguards in the
criminal justice system to fully protect those rights, is a matter of
grave statewide concern.
The rights of victims pervade the criminal justice system,
encompassing not only the right to restitution from the wrongdoers
for financial losses suffered as a result of criminal acts, but also
the more basic expectation that persons who commit felonious acts
causing injury to innocent victims will be appropriately detained in
custody, tried by the courts, and sufficiently punished so that the
public safety is protected and encouraged as a goal of highest
importance.
Such public safety extends to public primary, elementary, junior
high, and senior high school campuses, where students and staff have
the right to be safe and secure in their persons.
To accomplish these goals, broad reforms in the procedural
treatment of accused persons and the disposition and sentencing of
convicted persons are necessary and proper as deterrents to criminal
behavior and to serious disruption of people's lives.
(b) Restitution. It is the unequivocal intention of the People of
the State of California that all persons who suffer losses as a
result of criminal activity shall have the right to restitution from
the persons convicted of the crimes for losses they suffer.
Restitution shall be ordered from the convicted persons in every
case, regardless of the sentence or disposition imposed, in which a
crime victim suffers a loss, unless compelling and extraordinary
reasons exist to the contrary. The Legislature shall adopt
provisions to implement this section during the calendar year
following adoption of this section.
(c) Right to Safe Schools. All students and staff of public
primary, elementary, junior high and senior high schools have the
inalienable right to attend campuses which are safe, secure and
peaceful.
(d) Right to Truth-in-Evidence. Except as provided by statute
hereafter enacted by a two-thirds vote of the membership in each
house of the Legislature, relevant evidence shall not be excluded in
any criminal proceeding, including pretrial and post conviction
motions and hearings, or in any trial or hearing of a juvenile for a
criminal offense, whether heard in juvenile or adult court. Nothing
in this section shall affect any existing statutory rule of evidence
relating to privilege or hearsay, or Evidence Code, Sections 352, 782
or 1103. Nothing in this section shall affect any existing
statutory or constitutional right of the press.
(e) Public Safety Bail. A person may be released on bail by
sufficient sureties, except for capital crimes when the facts are
evident or the presumption great. Excessive bail may not be
required. In setting, reducing or denying bail, the judge or
magistrate shall take into consideration the protection of the
public, the seriousness of the offense charged, the previous criminal
record of the defendant, and the probability of his or her appearing
at the trial or hearing of the case. Public safety shall be the
primary consideration.
A person may be released on his or her own recognizance in the
court's discretion, subject to the same factors considered in setting
bail. However, no person charged with the commission of any serious
felony shall be released on his or her own recognizance.
Before any person arrested for a serious felony may be released on
bail, a hearing may be held before the magistrate or judge, and the
prosecuting attorney shall be given notice and reasonable opportunity
to be heard on the matter.
When a judge or magistrate grants or denies bail or release on a
person's own recognizance, the reasons for that decision shall be
stated in the record and included in the court's minutes.
(f) Use of Prior Convictions. Any prior felony conviction of any
person in any criminal proceeding, whether adult or juvenile, shall
subsequently be used without limitation for purposes of impeachment
or enhancement of sentence in any criminal proceeding. When a prior
felony conviction is an element of any felony offense, it shall be
proven to the trier of fact in open court.
(g) As used in this article, the term "serious felony" is any
crime defined in Penal Code, Section 1192.7(c).
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