Was it Lawful for the Justice Department to Reach a Secret Non-Prosecution Agreement with Jeffrey Epstein Without Telling His Victims? Reason.com

Today I filed a cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to review whether crime victims can enforce their rights under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) before prosecutors file charges.  The petition, filed by one of the nation’s leading crime victims’ attorneys, Bradley J. Edwards, and me on behalf of one of Epstein’s victims Courtney Wild seeks review of a 7-4 en banc decision from the Eleventh Circuit. The Circuit held that the CVRA is only triggered when prosecutors file federal charges. Before then, according to the Eleventh Circuit, prosecutors are free to conceal from victims any deal that they may strike with the target of a federal investigation as they did in the Epstein case. This issue has sweeping implications for the proper enforcement of the CVRA, and we hope that the Court grants Ms. Wild’s petition to review this very important legal question.

This petition is the latest chapter in more than twelve years of litigation brought by Edwards and me on behalf of Ms. Wild. I’ve blogged about this case numerous times before, including here, here, and here, and co-authored two law review articles on the case, found here and here.

via reason.com

Paul Cassell.