AVCV’s founder, Steven J. Twist, awarded 2020 Victim Rights Legend Award by the Office for Victims of Crime.

When it comes to victims’ rights, there is no one more deserving of the title legend than AVCV’s founder, Steve Twist. It is because of Steve’s vision, and seeing that vision come to fruition, that victims across the county have not only a voice throughout the criminal justice process, but a meaningful way to enforce rights.

Steve was the driving force behind Arizona’s constitutional amendment, known as the Arizona Victims’ Bill of Rights (VBR), Ariz. Const. art. II, § 2.1, in 1990 and its implementing legislation in 1991. Beyond providing rights to victims on paper, Steve had a vision for providing victims a way to enforce their constitutional rights and assure their voices are heard during the criminal justice process. In 1996, Steve shaped the future of non-profit victim services when he founded Arizona Voice for Crime Victims (AVCV), the very first clinic of its kind to provide both legal and social services to crime victims. By providing victims with their own attorneys, Steve contributed significantly to advancing the enforcement of victims’ rights. Victims in Arizona now had their own no cost attorneys to seek an appellate remedy to enforce victims’ constitutional rights or challenge orders denying victims’ constitutional rights. This kind of rights enforcement ultimately led to increased knowledge as Arizona’s appellate courts interpreted our VBR. More importantly, the victims who were being represented had increased knowledge and understanding of their rights.

Steve’s work for victims is not contained within the borders of Arizona. He has worked tirelessly toward a federal constitutional amendment that will someday provide federal constitutional rights and protections to victims of crimes. In working towards that goal, Steve was also instrumental in helping to secure passage of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA), 18 U.S.C. § 3771 in 2004. Steve worked closely with the two lead sponsors of the legislation, Senator Kyl from his home state of Arizona and Senator Feinstein from California. When it became clear that the federal constitutional amendment was not going to pass through Congress in 2004, Steve approached Senators Kyl and Feinstein about passing “model” federal legislation protecting victims, which became the CVRA. Since the enactment of the CVRA, it has helped to protect victims through the federal system and provided state of the art language for other states interested in protecting victims’ rights through statute. After the passage of the CVRA, Steve, along with Keli Luther, took the first federal case under the CVRA to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Steve has also been instrumental in the passage of constitutional amendments in other states. He helped draft the language for the first Marsy’s Law in California in 2008 and has been actively involved as a member of the National Policy Team for Marsy’s Law as it has been adopted in other states, including Illinois and Florida.