When You Are The Victim
MCL 780.765 — the victim's right to make an oral impact statement at sentencing
The oral impact statement. The victim has the right to appear and make an oral impact statement at the defendant's sentencing, and may elect to give it remotely.
Someone else may give it. If the victim is physically or emotionally unable to make the statement, the victim may designate any other person 18 years of age or older, who is neither the defendant nor incarcerated, to make it on the victim's behalf. The person need not be an attorney.
The defendant is in the room. Unless the court decides the defendant is behaving disruptively or presents a threat to anyone's safety in the courtroom, the defendant is physically present in the courtroom while the victim makes the statement. The court may consider what the victim says about the defendant being present.
This page reads the one section on the oral impact statement; Michigan's other crime victim's rights sections are not on it. Several of these rights apply only on request, or only to the offenses the section names. How they apply in a particular case is a question for a licensed Michigan attorney.
Sources for this section (1)
- MCL 780.765 — Oral impact statement at sentencing; physical presence of defendant
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Michigan attorney.