In Re: Courtney Wild

Abstract

This petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court asks the Court to review the issue of whether the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) required federal prosecutors confer with victims of Jeffrey Epstein before concluding non-prosecution agreements (NPA) with him. The petition arises from a NPA federal prosecutors in Florida reached with Epstein—blocking not only his prosecution for federal sex crimes but also that of his co-conspirators. The prosecutors never conferred with the victims about the non-prosecution agreement. After years of litigation about the validity of the secret NPA, the case reached the Eleventh Circuit. The Circuit ruled in an en banc decision, 7-4, that the CVRA does not give victims the ability to enforce their rights in court until the Justice Department formally files federal charges. This certiorari petition argues that the important legal issue of whether the nation’s preeminent crime victims’ rights statute permits the government to secretly conclude pre-indictment NPAs with targets of federal investigations warrants immediate review. Because such arrangements are, by definition, secret, other circuits may never be able to speak to the legality of such resolutions. Leaving the issue to percolate means that the Justice Department will be free to dispense with victims’ rights and orchestrate clandestine deals without affording victims any rights under the CVRA. The Supreme Court may well face a now-or-never opportunity to review the important question of whether the CVRA permits such secrecy. In addition, the illegitimacy of the Justice Department’s practice of covertly and deceptively arranging non-prosecution deals is far too serious for the Supreme Court to wait to see what other circuits might say. The Eleventh Circuit’s decision guts victims’ rights under the CVRA. Such a dubious interpretation runs counter to the statute’s plain language, which Congress designed to create a comprehensive bill of rights for crime victims—with enforceable rights.