Your letters: Marsy’s Law ensures crime victims’ voices are heard

As part of our ongoing effort to elevate voices calling for equal rights for crime victims, we’re pleased to share this letter to the editor from Tricia Fancher, originally published by the Wausau Pilot & Review. 

Dear editor,

As someone who helped organize the recent silhouette display inside the Wood County Courthouse, I saw something powerful. For a moment, the rights of crime victims, rights that too often go unnoticed, were impossible to ignore. The eight red silhouettes represented the survivors who move through our community every day, often quietly, and often without the recognition they deserve. Each figure highlighted a core protection guaranteed under Wisconsin’s crime victims’ rights constitutional amendment known as Marsy’s Law: the right to be heard, the right to privacy, the right to be informed, the right to restitution, and the right to enforce these rights when they are not honored. These are crucial safeguards that can shape a survivor’s entire experience with the justice system.

Each silhouette also contained a QR code linking to services available to support crime victims in our area, including Wisconsin Rapids Family Center.

In my work at Wisconsin Rapids Family Center, I meet people at some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Many arrive unsure and confused on whether they’ll be included in decisions that affect their safety and healing, but Marsy’s Law ensures victims voices cannot be brushed aside.

Raising awareness is not a one-day event. But on Feb. 25, our community took an important step toward ensuring every victim in Wood County and the state of Wisconsin understands his or her rights and feels supported in exercising them. This is the promise of Marsy’s Law, and it’s a promise worth keeping.

Tricia Fancher, Wausau