Victim's citizenship a sticking point

By Francis X. Gilpin
fxgilpin@gannett.com

State legislators created the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission in 1984.

The three-member commission, which has provided more than $69 million in financial assistance, is funded through court assessments against criminal defendants at sentencing, federal grants and, occasionally, private donations.

The state may award up to $15,000 to a victim. The commission seeks reimbursement from insurance settlements or civil judgments won by a recipient.

Medical and funeral bills, lost wages and moving expenses are among the items that a commission award may cover.

Claims for compensation can be denied for a number of reasons spelled out in the commission's administrative code. The victims themselves cannot engage in criminal conduct, for example.

The code also contains another eligibility criterion: "The victim's presence in the United States of America must be lawful."

This is the criterion the commission used to deny compensation to the widow of Michael P. Haslam. At the time of his 2006 death, Haslam was a citizen of New Zealand.

But his widow has contended that her marriage to Haslam permitted him to remain legally in the country of her birth.

That is a common misperception, according to Boyd F. Campbell, a Montgomery immigration lawyer. Marriage to an American doesn't automatically confer legal resident status upon a spouse who is an illegal alien, Campbell said.

But Campbell said all that should be irrelevant in the Haslam case. The surviving members of the Haslam family are American citizens and just as much crime victims as the late Michael Haslam, Campbell said.

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Once again Bama leads the way. They are going to be overrun with AMERICANS seeking refuge.