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The ACLU of Ohio Challenges Ohio's Proposed Victims Rights Constitutional Amendment

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ACLU Ohio

One of the state’s leading civil liberties organizations is opposing Issue 1 – the victims’ rights constitutional amendment known as Marsy’s Law. 

The ACLU of Ohio’s Gary Daniels worries putting Marsy’s Law into the state Constitution would make it difficult to fix problems. And he says this ballot issue would endanger due process for people accused of crimes by allowing victims to refuse interviews or depositions.

“And there are perfectly logical and reasonable reasons why somebody might seek information from a crime victim when they are being accused of a crime.”

But Aaron Marshall with the Issue 1 campaign says defendants can still get those items with a court’s permission.

“What we are trying to stop are these fishing expeditions that have nothing to do with the case which we are seeing around Ohio.”

The state public defender and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys’ Association are also opposing the issue, though some individual prosecutors are supporting it.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.