Fund Virginia Witness Protection Program
The prevalence of witness intimidation is, by its very nature, difficult to quantify, but we feel its influence every day in cases that come across our desks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated communities throughout America and set off a series of national crises. As Virginia prosecutors, we have seen one such crisis firsthand: a significant, nationwide increase in the incidence of shootings and homicides, most recently and tragically at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
A recent study of 21 jurisdictions across the country concluded that homicide rates increased by more than 40% last summer and more than 30% last fall. In Norfolk alone, we saw 49 homicides in 2020 compared to 37 in 2019.
This worrisome increase is unrelated to the political or philosophical orientation of a given city or state. It is the predictable result of desperation as group activities that once constructively occupied young people’s time have been largely on hold; victims of domestic abuse have been trapped at home with their abusers; mental health resources have been more difficult to access; and economic devastation has been tragically acute in many of our communities, particularly in communities that were already disadvantaged.
With this terrible pandemic finally starting to ebb, we expect that violence will ebb in turn, but as we pursue justice in violent-crime cases, we face a longstanding obstacle: the reluctance of witnesses to come to court and the lack of resources to protect them when they do. To address this obstacle, it is past time for the Virginia General Assembly to fund a program that, for 27 years, has existed only on paper: Virginia’s Witness Protection Program.
As prosecutors we understand that providing for the security of witnesses and victims is essential to the pursuit of justice for those people victimized by violent crime. We further know that a considerable proportion of violent crime in Norfolk and Fairfax is perpetrated by, against and in the presence of people who are known to one another. As a result, too often justice proves elusive for lack of witness testimony in court, even when the community knows who committed the crime. And violence that goes unaddressed often leads to retaliatory violence.
The prevalence of witness intimidation is, by its very nature, difficult to quantify, but we feel its influence every day in cases that come across our desks. One nationwide survey of prosecutors found witness intimidation to be a factor in an estimated 75% of violent crime cases — and this particular study was conducted before social media, a well-established intimidation tool, became ubiquitous.
Witness protection programs — which provide for the security or relocation of witnesses away from those who might wish them harm — are among the most effective means of counteracting witness intimidation. The federal witness protection program was launched in 1970 and has provided for the security of more than 7,500 witnesses and 9,500 family members over the past five decades. Its success has inspired several U.S. states to follow suit.
The Virginia General Assembly authorized the creation of the Virginia Witness Protection Program in 1994. But since its inception, the program has never been meaningfully funded, whether in Republican or Democratic budgets. Our state government has therefore recognized that safeguarding witnesses against intimidation is key to effectively addressing and reducing violence while not investing the necessary resources to do so.
Over the last two years, we have seen landmark, positive reforms to Virginia’s criminal law and procedures thanks to the efforts of our governor and the Democratic majorities in the General Assembly. Now, we urge our legislators to fully fund Virginia’s witness protection program so that Virginia can lead the nation in protecting victims and witnesses of violent crime and help stop the cycle of violence. As we emerge from the pandemic, communities will turn to prosecutors to ensure that justice is done, but we prosecutors — and the victims and witnesses on whose testimony we rely — cannot do it alone.