LANSING, Mich. – Legislation that would require a defendant to be physically present in the courtroom when a victim makes an impact statement is one step closer to becoming law.
Michigan House bill 5407, also called the Rebekah Bletsch bill, comes after the sentencing for Jeffrey Willis in the Bletsch case. After being convicted in her murder, Willis was allowed to leave the courtroom and avoid listening to impact statements from her family. It's an experience her family doesn’t want anyone else to go through.
"I’m here today to hopefully prevent this from happening to another family,” says Jessica Josephson, Bletsch’s sister. “Watching [Willis] walk out that day, the way he walked out will forever stay with me. When it should have been the other way around. What I had to say should have forever stuck with him."
On Tuesday, the bill went before the Senate judiciary committee for approval and passed with a unanimous vote.
Now it will go to the House floor for a vote, and if it passes it, would then go to the Gov. Rick Snyder's desk. Rep. Holly Hughes of Muskegon County introduced the bill back in January and in March it passed through the House with a vote of 105 to 2.
“For him not to have to listen to how their loss impacts their lives forever, he gets to live, she did not," Rep. Hughes said. "And a victim’s rights should be higher than a convicted murderer’s rights. It’s just not right for him to be able to walk out of that courtroom.”
Hughes and the Bletsch family are hoping this becomes law by May, partly because Jeffrey Willis is going back on trial, this time for the murder of Jessica Heeringa.
The Senate committee also gave the bill immediate effect, meaning that it would not have the normal 90 day waiting period before becoming law.
