PRESTON

STATEMENT FROM THE AUTHOR

Bob Preston*

Wendy Preston, 22, was murdered on June 23, 1977 in her parents’

Florida home. She was a geriatric nurse, and was visiting her mother and father,

Bob and Pat Preston, before leaving for the New York School of Ballet to begin a

new career. While out with her friends, she mentioned that her parents would not

be home for awhile. The killer overheard her, found her parents’ home, broke in

to find money to buy drugs, and murdered Wendy. Friends found her body six

days later. Her parents were told that the state of Florida was the “victim” in this

case, and that they would be notified only if they were to be called as witnesses.1

My continuing commitment is to establish a constitutional guarantee that federal

legislation passed to offer federal crime victims certain rights does not get overturned, as we

experienced in Florida in 1987, and that crime victims all across our country will have a baseline

of fair and meaningful rights.

My daughter, Wendy Preston, was murdered in 1977, at our Florida home. After first-

degree murder charges were filed, my wife and I were told that Florida was the victim, and we

would be notified if we were to be called as witnesses. After that, it became extremely difficult

for us to get information about the case—the case that we regarded as our case. Ultimately, after

a series of misadventures that I will not relate here, the murderer was allowed to plead to a

second-degree murder charge.

David Tal-Mason, the murderer of my daughter, had constitutional rights. What, I

wondered, were the constitutional rights of victims? There were none. We were told by the

Office of the State Attorney of Broward County, Florida that it was a crime against the state and

we were not the victims. We would be called if needed as witnesses

In 1979, we joined with other homicide survivors in a volunteer effort to seek legislation

* The author is a Co-Chair of the National Victim Constitutional Amendment Network.

1 Jon Kyl et al., On the Wings of Their Angels: The Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy Preston, Louarna

Gillis, and Nila Lynn Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 9 LEWIS & CLARK L. REV. 581, 582 (2005).

PHOENIX LAW REVIEW

enabling crime victims to participate in the American justice process, and we established Justice

for Surviving Victims. Many well-intentioned bills were passed by the Florida legislature,

attempting to do something for victims.2 Yet our fear was that without constitutional guarantees,

much of it would turn out to be poetry.

In 1984, Florida voters approved a twenty-eight page Victim and Witness Protection Act,

which offered victims and survivors some rights to participate in the justice process.3 In 1987,

while, as part of the plea, David Tal-Mason had agreed that he would not ask for or receive credit

for time served in a mental institution, he immediately appealed on that basis and was given

credit for time served. The Florida Supreme Court said that to not give him credit would

“implicate significant constitutional rights.”4

In 1988, article 1, section 16, of the Florida Constitution was amended to ensure crime

victims had the constitutional guarantee “to be informed, to be present, and to be heard when

relevant, at all crucial stages of criminal proceedings, to the extent that these rights do not

interfere with the constitutional rights of the accused.”5 After the passage of the Florida

amendment, we were present at all subsequent parole hearings for the next twenty years. But the

limitations of the State amendment are evident.

While thirty-three states now have similar constitutional rights for victims, seventeen

states do not,6 and the ones that do differ in force and effect. My fear is that the well-intended

legislation passed by the U.S. House and Senate and in the states has proven inadequate to really

make our system fair for victims everywhere. Just as the rights of the offender are protected in

2 See generally FLA. STAT. §§ 960.001-960.298 (2011), available at

http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2011/Chapter960. 3 Press Release, Dep’t of Justice, 1987 National Victims Crime Week Honorees (Apr. 29, 1987),

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/1987/press.htm. 4 Tal-Mason v. State, 515 So. 2d 738, 740 (Fla. 1987).

5 FLA. CONST. art. 1, § 16(b) (emphasis added).

6 State Victim Rights Amendments, NAT’L VICTIMS’ CONST. AMENDMENT PASSAGE, http://www.nvcap.org/ (follow

“state vras” hyperlink on left side of page) (last visited Mar. 17, 2012).

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our U.S. Constitution, so should the rights of the victim. This is a simple matter of common

sense and fairness.