It’s Crime Victim’s Rights Week and here is our experience with the important service of crime victim’s advocacy.
I sat at our kitchen table and punched the Pettis County prosecutor’s phone number on my cell phone without having rehearsed what I would say. Joseph Arbeiter, my mother’s murderer, had been arrested for rape and murder in Sedalia. A pleasant woman’s voice answered cheerfully, yet professionally, “Pettis County Prosecutor’s Office, how may I help you?”
“I would like to talk to Mr. Mittlehauser about the Joseph Arbeiter case,” I replied.
“He is not available right now. Are you an attorney?” she asked.
“He murdered my mother.”
It was apparent this was not what she was expecting to hear and for a few seconds she must have debated whether she should interrupt the prosecutor. After a few moments of silence, she said, “Umm, please hold.”
Mr. Mittlehauser was kind and as forthcoming as he could be about the case. I wanted to know if they had him. Did the police do everything right? Was Arbeiter going to weasel his way out of another murder, not to mention a brutal rape? He was cautiously reassuring. Towards the end of the conversation, he indicated he was going to forward my name and number to the victim’s advocate and for the first time in my life I learned there was such a thing. It was also the first time in my life that I even thought of myself in those terms, “victim”. I also didn’t realize that Missouri’s constitution gave victims rights, separate from the constitutional rights of the accused.
According to the Missouri Department of Public Safety’s website, Article 1, Section 32 of the Missouri State Constitution guarantees that crime victims have the right to:
1. Be present at all criminal justice proceedings at which the defendant has such right
2. Be informed and heard at guilty pleas, bail hearings, sentencing's, probation revocation hearings and parole hearings
3. Be informed of trials and preliminary hearings
4. Restitution
5. The speedy disposition and appellate review of cases
6. Reasonable protection from the defendant or any person acting on behalf of the defendant
7. Information concerning the release, escape, recapture or death of the accused while in custody or confinement
8. Information about how the criminal justice system works, the rights and availability of services and information about the crime.
While my family’s needs were limited fifty years after our own incident, my experience with the Victim’s Advocate, who at the time was a woman named Beverly, was extremely positive. I received a call from Beverly several months later and she informed me that Arbeiter intended to plead guilty to all charges and let me know I could attend the hearing. We were already informed that the state disclosed its intent to introduce our mother’s murder as aggravating circumstances in the new case. Laura and I decided to attend.
Once at the hearing, Beverly walked us through the process we would witness that day and also introduced us to Arbeiter’s fresh set of victims, a common bond we all wished we didn’t share. After the hearing, the result of which he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, we were held at the courtroom door while the guards escorted Arbeiter out of the courthouse. While waiting for the criminal to pass, Beverly offered to ask the guard at our door to inform Mr. Arbeiter that we were there to watch him be locked away for the rest of his life. We accepted. We knew Arbeiter didn’t care, but Beverly recognized it was important for him to know anyway and it was an act of kindness I will always remember.
After the hearing, we were guided through the process of submitting a “Victim Notification Request Form” to the Office of Victims Services. The form states, “As the victim of crime, committed in the State of Missouri, you have the right to be notified of parole hearing dates, parole hearing results, escape, death, and release to the community.” In June of 2015, Beverly called me and informed me that Joseph Arbeiter died, representing a kind of closure for the family and the end of our direct experience with crime victim’s advocacy.
I am thankful that I live in a country with foundational constitutional rights, including rights of the accused. I am equally thankful that in Missouri, crime victims also have rights embedded in its constitution. This week is Crime Victim’s Rights week, a reminder through my family’s lived experience, that victims have rights too, and, as a result, victims are not alone.
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