ADVIC POLICY DOCUMENT

Our aim is to advocate for changes that will bring about a re-balancing of the Criminal Justice System, and recognition of the status of families of Homicide victims within that system. Families of Homicide victims, having experienced the Criminal Justice system, have found it lacking in fairness and balance. We aim to ensure that a comprehensive and co-ordinated inter-agency support service is offered to all families.

As representatives of AdVIC our objectives are:

1. Pre-Trail Procedures:

We recommend that the States appoint a Victim Liaison officer or set up an agency specifically to liaise with the families of homicide victims

We recommend that homicide cases should not take more than one year to come to trial from the time of service of the book of evidence, save in exceptional circumstances.

We recommend that the book of evidence should contain a character profile of the victim submitted by the family of the homicide victim.

2. Definition:

We recommend that the charges of murder and manslaughter be reviewed with a view to introducing a charge of murder by degree. Murder of first degree would equate the existing murder charge; murders of lesser degrees would replace the existing manslaughter charge.

3. Representation:

We recommend that Section 26(3) of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 be extended to provide that families of homicide victims would qualify for legal advice free of any contribution (on the same basis as complainants in rape and serious sexual assault cases).
This would allow families of homicide victims to be kept informed during the pre-trial process, and to feel they had more of a voice within the system.

We recommend that the family of the victim is allowed to give an impact victim statement after all homicide convictions.

We recommend that the families of manslaughter victims would be given the opportunity to make representations to the DPP, in cases where the DPP is considering bringing an appeal against a sentence for manslaughter on grounds of undue leniency under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993, as amended.

We recommend that post mortem results be made available to the family automatically in advance of inquests and we recommend that a system of quality assurance be put in place for forensic pathology.

We recommend that the Department of Foreign Affairs appoint an appropriately trained person to liaise with families when the homicide of an Irish citizen occurs in a foreign country.

4. Compensation:

We recommend that Article 10 of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal be reviewed to allow cases when a homicide takes place within the family home and with members of the same family to be assessed individually for compensation.

We recommend that the mandatory life sentence for murder be reviewed with a view to introducing a minimum term of imprisonment of 25 years for murder of first degree.

We recommend the adoption of a set of non-statutory sentencing guidelines for homicide cases, to ensure that consistent criteria are applied when judges are sentencing for manslaughter or murder.

We recommend that existing bail laws be implemented by the judiciary especially when objection to bail is expressed by the Gardai

We recommend the adoption of a presumption that persons convicted of homicide
or non-fatal serious violent assaults are not to be granted bail where the case is to be adjourned after conviction for sentencing, save in exceptional circumstances.

We recommend that the current practice of giving concurrent sentences to offenders who have already been sentenced to a homicide conviction be reviewed

6. Parole and release from prison:

We recommend that the 7 years parole application threshold for murder prisoners are reviewed with a view to extent it to 15 years.

We recommend appropriate representation on the parole board to express the views of families of homicide victims.

We recommend that the parole board, when reviewing the case of a person convicted of homicide, seek a written submission from the family of the victim.

We recommend that the family of a homicide victim be given the opportunity to register at the sentencing earring that they want to be informed in advance of the date on which the perpetrator of the homicide is to be released or repatriated.

7. Gardai:

We recommend that the Family Liaison Officer (FLO) scheme operated by the Gardai be extended to all districts and that FLO’s get continuous training under the scheme.