As we approach the beginning of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week: April 10-17, we need for citizens of Cobb County to be aware of the toll that crime is taking in our nation, the need for enforceable, Constitutional Victims’ Rights and the need to support legislation for this when it comes before the State of Georgia legislature next year.
As survivors of a victim of homicide, our daughter, Renee Olubunmi Rondeau, we appreciate and understand clearly how the community at large can assist all victims of crime. By meeting victims where they are, by reaching out to them, and by listening to and understanding their specific needs, we can help restore victims’ hope for healing and recovery. We have had our friends, our neighbors, our family and numerous county and state agencies reach out to us to help us to understand the criminal justice system and our rights as survivors of a victim of crime.
For the past 21 years since the murder of our daughter, Renee Olubunmi Rondeau, on Halloween night, October 31, 1994, you have helped us to obtain some semblance of healing after this brutal act of man’s inhumanity to man!
One of the important issues that we would like to address, and that involves each of us here in the state of Georgia, is the issue of an enforceable, Constitutional Victims’ Rights Bill. 33 States in the nation have Victims’ Rights enshrined in their State Constitution but Georgia does not. As a matter of fact, Georgia is one of 17 states that does NOT have enforceable Constitutional Rights for victims of crime.
We have been working on this issue, with other victims and survivors of crime, working with a committee to introduce state legislation for enforceable, Constitutional Victims’ Rights since 2008. This committee worked for two years on this victims’ rights bill. In 2010, this bill was introduced to the Georgia State Legislature by our State Representative Don Parsons of East Cobb. The bill was passed and Governor Sonny Perdue signed it into law in May of 2010. An existing Victims Rights’ Bill of 1995 that Governor Zell Miller had signed into law was improved, however, still no enforcement and it still has not been put into the Constitution of the State of Georgia.
We victims continue our efforts for enforceability. For the past month, we have been involved with a committee at the state level to introduce legislation for enforceable, Constitutional Victims’ Rights. Unfortunately, there was much opposition to enforceability for seemingly very weak reasons. Therefore the non-civil committee at the Georgia State legislature “tabled” the House Resolution until next year, 2017.
So, we victims wait and some of us suffer because of discrepancies in what those who are handling the criminal cases seem to choose to do or not to do. So the crux of the situation is this: there are victims of crime all over Georgia who need enforceable Constitutional Rights enshrined in the State Constitution — especially with more than 36,000 crimes committed in Georgia each year!
Americans are the victims of more than 20 million crimes each year and crime can touch the lives of anyone regardless of age, national origin, race, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, immigration, or economic status. We know, we have experienced the horror. Crime does not discriminate. Crime transcends all boundaries. . . a wall cannot be built between county lines or state lines. We must all work together for solutions!
You can help victims of crime by calling your State Representative to ask about the Victims’ Rights Resolution that has been tabled by the Georgia State Legislature until next year. National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is an opportune time to commit to ensuring that all victims of crime are offered accessible and appropriate services in the aftermath of crime, enforced in the Constitution of the State of Georgia. The rights of victims including the right to be heard and to be treated with fairness, dignity and respect, and working to meet their needs rebuilding their trust in the criminal justice system. We believe serving victims and rebuilding their trust restores hope to victims and survivors, as well as their communities.
The fact is that crime is here. In the meantime, each one of us can reach out to our friends, to our neighbors, to those agencies that are assisting victims of crime, offering your support for their efforts in assisting victims of crime.
Article written by By Elaine and Gordon Rondeau, Founders, The Renee Olubunmi Rondeau Peace Foundation. Elaine and Gordon Rondeau are East Cobb County residents. They founded the nonprofit, The Renee Olubunmi Rondeau Peace Foundation, after their daughter, Renee Olubunmi Rondeau, was murdered in 1994. For more information on their nonprofit, visit www.rorpf.org.
Reprinted from EAST COBBER’s April 2016 issue
