VICTIM RIGHTS ADVOCATE DOES FAVOR FOR ALL OF US

Human experience provides a cruel irony where crime is concerned: criminals have options while their victims have none. Being a lawbreaker entitles a person to choose the time and place and target of the criminal act; the victim is omitted from the planning and suffers from this innocence. Sarah Froemsdorf of Perryville wants to level the playing field with advocacy of victims' rights issues. We commend her efforts.

Mrs. Froemsdorf is a survivor of the worst variety of crime. Her husband was a Missouri Highway Patrol officer killed in the line of duty. Following his death in 1985, she discovered the bitter process that victims must endure: sitting impas~sive~~ly (and necessarily for fear of a mistrial) through an emotional court proceeding, learning of the perpetrator's revolving-door history with the corrections systems, determining that victims too often feel victimized a second time by the machinations of justice. As the franchise of a compassionate society, the criminal justice system does little to reflect any quality of empathy.

Most remarkable about Mrs. Froemsdorf's experience is her refusal to retreat into the quiet existence of a "victim." From this tragic event in her life she has produced something positive, an activism that provides support for persons who have found themselves in her same position. Beyond this base of understanding, Mrs. Froemsdorf has also been a dynamic force in the shaping of laws to establish the rights of crime victims. Through her efforts and those of the Missouri Victim Assistance Network, in which her leadership has been formidable, a constitutional amendment will appear on the state ballot in November to sustain the rights of victims. The measure provides victims the right to be informed of criminal proceedings in which they have an interest, the right to proper restitution, the right to protection from a defendant and the right to be informed about the escape or release of a defendant, among other things.

What hits home about these matters is that anyone can become a crime victim ... and it can happen as soon as the next moment. No person asks to be a victim, just as Sarah Froemsdorf never expected a life as an advocate. She has embraced, through her own suffering, a cause in which any individuals might find themselves involved. For her efforts, we are appreciative.