Marsy’s Law is First Ballot Question to Officially Make Ballot
Campaign Announces Hiring of Two New Staff Positions and New Website
Marsy’s Law for South Dakota, an organization composed of citizens and victim rights advocates, announced today that it is the first ballot question to pass the challenge period with no challenges. As a result, it is the first initiated ballot question to officially make the ballot for the General Election on November 8, 2016. The Secretary of State has classified the ballot question as “Constitutional Amendment S.”
Last November, Marsy’s Law for South Dakota filed nearly 53,000 signatures with the Secretary of State, well in excess of the 27,741 required by South Dakota law for an initiated constitutional amendment to be placed on the ballot.
“This is another great day for crime victims in South Dakota,” said Jason Glodt, former prosecutor and State Director for Marsy’s Law for South Dakota, “South Dakota has some of the weakest crime victim rights in the nation and we are now one step closer to giving victims equal rights that would actually be enforceable by a court of law.”
“We are also ramping up our grassroots campaign effort,” said Glodt. “We are excited to announce that Tami Haug-Davis and Jordan Callaghan have joined our team and will be helping to make our grassroots organization even stronger.”
“Tami and Jordan have decades of experience fighting for crime victims and they will be a strong asset to our team,” said Glodt.
Tami Haug-Davis will be the Outreach Director for Marsy’s Law for South Dakota. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor from Sioux Falls who has over 25 years of experience working in child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Tami has experience in child protection and 24 hour crisis intervention for domestic violence and sexual assault victims. Tami has taught workshops and seminars in family violence and she has done treatment work with batterers and offenders.
Jordan Callaghan from Vermillion will be a Field Director for Marsy’s Law for South Dakota. Jordan graduated from the University of South Dakota with a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Psychology, and is currently obtaining her Masters of Social Work from the University of South Dakota. She has extensive experience advocating for marginalized and vulnerable populations in South Dakota.
Marsy’s Law for South Dakota also has a new website located at www.marsyslaw.us with a state-specific page link at http://marsyslaw.us/marsys-law-state-efforts/south-dakota/ . The website is a comprehensive source for information about Marsy’s Law and includes regular updates from states where Marsy’s Law campaigns are currently underway.
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Looks like a lot of challenge period deadlines are coming up in the next two weeks. It will be interesting to see how many are challenged.
Who is writing the checks for this group? Anyone from South Dakota? Let’s look over the financials of these ballot committees real careful when they come out next week.
Jason contacted me and said this is mostly paid for by Marsy’s brother. Appreciated that he reached out.
This is most unfortunate. Prior to the election I would meet with your State’s Attorney and ask them what they think of this legislation. California populism in South Dakota doesn’t work.
SD is one of 17 states that has no constitutional rights for crime victims. Criminals have constitutional rights and crime victims deserve them too.
A defendant in a criminal case has constitutional rights because the government is seeking to convict that person and potentially take away that person’s freedom. The constitutional rights constrain the government to make sure it acts fairly when it locks someone up. Victims do not need protection from the government, so constitutional rights are not necessary. Statutes are perfectly capable of protecting victims from the defendant and of giving them a voice in the process, which is what we have in South Dakota. This constitutional amendment is unnecessary.
The current SD statutes for crime victim rights are not enforceable so they are very weak. Marsy’s Law will make those rights constitutional rights so they are enforceable. Criminals have constitutional rights and victims deserve equal rights. 2/3rds of the states have passed constitutional rights for crime victims.
Uh ok Jason.
First? What about Constitutional Amendment R? Or Referred Law 19? Or Referred Law 20? California Liberal populist issues are not the first of be certified…can’t even get the facts right.
It is the first initiated ballot question to be officially on the ballot via direct democracy of the people.
Well if Jason could write coherently we might not have been confused.