J.B. VAN HOLLEN
ATTORNEY GENERAL

Murder Victims Remembered

Today, September 25, marks the nation’s second National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims. The national observance was established with unanimous bipartisan support at the request of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children, Inc., in order to honor all victims of murder and to recognize the impact of homicide on surviving families, loved ones and communities.

In this week, people gathered to remember their loved ones at vigils and ceremonies throughout the country and our state.  The Department of Justice was honored to participate as a host at today’s ceremony at the Milwaukee War Memorial - a ceremony at which public officials and homicide survivors remembered these lives and those left behind.  This observation, co-hosted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, the City of Milwaukee Mayor’s Office, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Career Youth Development and the Greater Milwaukee Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children reminds us all of the horrible legacy murders leaves in our lives and our communities.  Local businesses, victim support groups and government agencies worked together to organize the ceremony, sending a message to survivors that we, as a community, remember their loss and that we will continue to work to provide for safer communities.  Violent crimes affect the entire community, but no one so acutely as those left grieving the death and loss of a murdered loved one.  This solemn remembrance ceremony was an opportunity to demonstrate to victims that they, and their murdered loved ones, are not forgotten.

Bravely, homicide survivors Barbara Prevort, Jodi Jagdfeld and Denise Everett shared their stories and asked us all to remember. I thank them for their courage, energy, and commitment to honoring their loved ones while seeking to make us all safer.

For my part, I have looked into the faces and heard the voices of those who suffer every day because someone they love was violently taken from them. For every victim there are family members - including children and other loved ones, co-workers, neighbors, teachers, and friends whose lives are changed forever.  Sadly, in Wisconsin, there were 337 lives taken as a result of alcohol-related traffic crashes last year. 183 murders shook Wisconsin in 2007. Of those, 105 occurred in the city of Milwaukee.

There are no quick and easy solutions to this problem. But there are many promising cooperative efforts and strategies underway that I have been proud to participate in and support.

I am a working member of the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission, a homicide review process aimed at reducing the occurrence of homicides in Milwaukee. The Commission has developed over 100 recommendations based on its review of over 150 homicides in an effort to promote innovative and proactive strategies to reduce violence in the community.

The Department of Justice has funded a pilot Witness Protection Program working together with Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, to protect victims of crime and potential witnesses from intimidation, violence and coercion.  I have made the Department’s own criminal investigation agents available at the request of District Attorney Chisholm to supplement his own investigative unit, to actively investigate crimes involving witness tampering.  Since May 2008, this witness protection project has resulted in the investigation of 250 cases and 24 arrests and convictions.  The success of this pilot has allowed for progress in establishing ongoing witness protection efforts in Milwaukee County. For this we can all be pleased

School safety is also a priority. I am working with local school officials on legislation to facilitate information sharing with law enforcement to keep school campuses safe.

Finally, in addition to my own efforts in Milwaukee, the Office of Crime Victim Services has been working to identify and collaborate with local services providers to expand outreach services to victims and survivors.

The National Day of Remembrance will soon pass but we continue to work daily to create safer communities, to investigate and prosecute violent crime and to provide assistance to victims and witnesses of crime.  We continue to fight for public policy to increase resources for the investigation and prosecution of crime and to provide adequate protection to victims and witnesses who courageously seek justice.

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