§ 12-28-4 - Right to address court prior to sentencing. - Rhode Island Statutes

SECTION 12-28-4

   § 12-28-4  Right to address court prior tosentencing. – (a) Prior to the imposition of sentence upon a defendant who has beenadjudicated guilty of a crime in a trial, the victim of the criminal offenseshall be afforded the opportunity to address the court regarding the impactwhich the defendant's criminal conduct has had upon the victim. The victimshall be permitted to speak prior to counsel for the state and the defendantmaking their sentencing recommendations to the court and prior to thedefendant's exercise of his or her right to address the court.

   (b) For the purposes of this section, "victim" is one who hassustained personal injury or loss of property directly attributable to thefelonious conduct of which the defendant has been convicted. In homicide cases,a member of the immediate family of the victim shall be afforded the rightcreated by this section.

   (c) "Community impact statement" means a written statementproviding information about the financial, emotional and physical effects of acrime on a community. "Community" means a society or body of people living inthe same place or neighborhood sharing common interests arising from social,business, religious, governmental, scholastic or recreational associations.

   (d) In addition to the right of a victim as identified insubsection (b) of this section, if the crime has an impact on the communitywhere the incident took place, any person, association or other group ofpersons may file a community impact statement with the court prior to theimposition of sentence on a defendant.