Violent Crime Survivors

08/04/2026

Special Act 26-8.
Today, I hold my copy of the law in my hands.
It was signed by Governor Ned Lamont a few weeks ago. But today, it arrived on my front porch, my copy, with a pen - and for the first time, I could physically hold what more than seven years of advocacy, loss, persistence, and belief became.
Just a few pieces of paper.
But I know what it took to get here.
More than seven years of advocacy. Seven years of defeats. Seven years of rewriting, regrouping, compromising, grieving, and refusing to give up.
This is not the bill we originally envisioned. And it is certainly not where our work ends.
But today, Connecticut took a foundational step toward something survivors have deserved all along: visibility, accountability, and the ability to finally understand how intimate partner violence cases move through our justice system.
For years, I tracked these cases myself because no unified system did.
I pieced together the stories through families, news reports, court records, sentencing transcripts, parole hearings, and conversations no one should ever have to have.
Every name.
Every life.
Every family.
For every victim whose story I have carried, whose data I documented, and whose family trusted me with their heartbreak:
I hold you in my heart every single day.
This law is in your remembrance.
You mattered.
Your life mattered.
And your story deserves to be seen, not lost in disconnected systems or forgotten with time.
Jenn Lawlor, my warrior mama friend, my heart is blessed by you trusting me enough, to let me know and love Emily and your family. That is one of the greatest honors of my life. Your courage is something no mother should ever have to know, yet you have transformed unimaginable grief into purpose. Emily continues to change Connecticut through you.
State Representative Raghib Allie-Brennan thank you for your integrity, your relentless pursuit of legislative repair and justice, and your willingness to stand beside survivors when it was difficult. From the first draft to the law I hold today, you gave this work your time, your heart, and your conviction. This could not have happened without you.
Office of Governor Ned Lamont thank you for signing this legislation into law and for being willing to listen to victims and survivors. Thank you for leading with reason and compassion, and for having the courage to make difficult decisions when victims’ rights were at stake.
This law will not restore the lives that were stolen.
But it begins something Connecticut has never had.
The ability to see.
To measure.
To evaluate.
To hold systems accountable.
To learn.
And ultimately, to prevent.
Today, I hold this law and a pen.
I do not just see paper.
I see every family who stood beside us.
I see every victim whose name deserves to be remembered.
I see the possibility of change.
And I know this is only the beginning.
Tomorrow, we go back to work. 💜

07/09/2026

Victims’ rights laws vary widely by state, and understanding those rights is an important step toward enforcing them. NCVLI’s Victim Law Library provides access to legal resources, case law, and state-specific information to help advocates, attorneys, and survivors better understand the rights available to crime victims.

Explore the Victim Law Library and find resources to support victims’ rights enforcement. https://ncvli.org/professional-resources/victim-law-library/

07/09/2026

Yes!

When most criminal cases end in plea bargains, victims’ rights cannot be an afterthought.

NCVLI’s latest Rights and Remedies blog examines State v. Zeitler and why victims’ rights need to be protected in real time. https://ncvli.org/most-criminal-cases-end-in-plea-bargains-are-victims-rights-lost-in-the-bargain/

05/06/2026

Seven years.
Seven years of survivors showing up.
Seven years of families reliving the worst moments of their lives in hearing rooms, offices, zoom calls and legislative meetings.

Seven years of refusing to let intimate partner violence homicides remain invisible in Connecticut.
Last night, HB 5313 passed the Connecticut Senate unanimously after unanimous passage in the House, and it now heads to the Governor’s desk.

This was not the bill we originally started with.
And it will not be the last bill we fight for.
But today is still a victory.

For years, Violent Crime Survivors has manually tracked intimate partner and family violence homicides across Connecticut dating back to 2000 - piecing together information through survivors, news reports, court proceedings, sentencing records, parole data, and cold case investigations because no unified statewide tracking system existed.

No consistent identifiers. No connected data. No full picture.

And without data, there is no real transparency, no measurable accountability, and no way to honestly evaluate whether justice is being applied equitably across cases, counties, races, socioeconomic status, or communities.
HB 5313 changes that.

This legislation begins the process of creating a uniform statewide case identification system for domestic violence cases - allowing Connecticut to finally track cases from incident and arrest through prosecution, sentencing, incarceration, parole, and supervision.

That matters deeply to survivors and families.
Because equitable justice begins with visibility.
Families deserve to know that every victim’s life carries the same weight under the law. That crimes are treated with equal seriousness. That outcomes are not dependent on geography, circumstance, or silence within disconnected systems.

This bill is survivor-led legislation rooted in lived experience, years of advocacy, and countless voices who refused to let this issue disappear.

Representative Raghib Allie-Brennan stood with survivors and fought for meaningful reform for seven years, even when earlier efforts were obstructed. He listened. He stayed. And he helped move this foundational legislation forward.

Today is especially meaningful for Emily Todd’s family. We love you Emily 💜
Emily’s life - and the advocacy that followed her murder - helped push Connecticut toward finally acknowledging that we cannot prevent what we refuse to clearly see.

This work is for every victim whose life risks becoming only a headline, a docket number, or a forgotten data point.
It is for every survivor and family member who has sat in a courtroom searching for accountability, fairness, and equal treatment under the law.

Because equitable justice matters.
Survivors deserve to know that every victim’s life carries the same value, that crimes are treated with equal seriousness, and that justice is applied consistently regardless of geography, race, socioeconomic status, or circumstance.

This legislation is about more than data collection. It is about finally building the ability to identify patterns, understand escalation, evaluate outcomes honestly, and create prevention grounded in evidence instead of assumptions.

Better visibility leads to better accountability.
Better accountability leads to better policy.
Better policy leads to prevention.
And prevention saves lives.

Today sends a message to survivors and victims across Connecticut:
Your loved ones mattered.
Your experiences matter.
And what happened to them will no longer remain invisible. Jenn Lawlor State Representative Raghib Allie-Brennan