Ch. 311

1997 LAWS OF MARYLAND

CHAPTER 311
(Senate Bill 173)

AN ACT concerning

Victims' Rights Act of 1997

FOR the purpose of establishing that certain evidence relating to a victim's prior sexual
conduct is not admissible in a prosecution for attempted rape or attempted sexual
offense in the first or second degree; requiring the Maryland Parole Commission to
notify certain victims, in writing, within a certain period of time prior to entering
into or approving a predetermined parole release agreement with an inmate;
prohibiting the Maryland Parole Commission from entering into a predetermined
parole release agreement unless it has notified the victim under this Act; expanding
certain victims' rights laws to include juvenile proceedings and victims who file a
notification request form; authorizing a District Court commissioner or an intake
officer, under certain circumstances, to impose certain conditions of pretrial release
on a defendant; expanding the requirement that a District Court commissioner
consider a certain condition of pretrial release in a stalking case to apply to any
criminal case felony; requiring a juvenile intake officer to consider a certain condition
when releasing certain juveniles pretrial, requiring the clerk, under certain
circumstances, to include a copy of a notification request form with a probation
order; authorizing, under certain circumstances, certain judicial officers or a law
enforcement officer, to withhold the release prior to trial of certain information
relating to a victim or witness; providing that only the State may make a motion to
prohibit the release of certain information during a criminal trial; limiting the number
of attorneys that may be present when a child testifies by closed circuit television,
when a judge hears testimony on whether to allow a child to testify by closed circuit
television, or at an in camera examination to determine whether to admit an out of
court statement by a child; limiting the number of attorneys that may question the
child in a criminal, juvenile delinquency, or child in need of assistance case;
authorizing a victim who files a notification request form and a State's Attorney to
file a leave to appeal an order that denies or fails to consider certain victims' rights;
expanding the rights from which the appeal may be filed to include the right to
address a jury in a death penalty sentencing and the right to prepare a victim impact
statement; prohibiting the stay of a sentencing or disposition hearing when an
appeal is filed under this Act; authorizing the court, under certain terms, to stay
certain proceedings from which an appeal has been filed; specifying the parties to a
leave to appeal filed under this Act; establishing the circumstances under which a
victim or a victim's representative may address the judge before the imposition of a
sentence or disposition; establishing the right of a victim's representative, subject to
certain conditions, to address the jury in a death penalty sentencing; requiring a
victim impact statement to identify certain information relating to contact between
the defendant and the victim; expanding the requirement that a victim be notified of
certain postsentencing proceedings to include victims of certain crimes who suffer
direct or threatened physical, emotional, or financial harm as a direct result of a
crime or delinquent act; requiring the Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services to notify certain victims of violent crime if the defendant or

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