North Dakota Sheriff's Group Backs Marsy's Law Measure

Last week I noted that, in an ugly development for supporters of the Marsy’s Law ballot measure, North Dakota’s criminal defense lawyers came out against it and the state’s prosecutors seem poised to.

But the group does have a compelling endorsement of its own. The North Dakota Sheriff’s & Deputies Association passed a resolution back in January supporting the measure. The Marsy’s Law committee put out a press release about it last week.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]“We as Sheriffs of North Dakota work to protect and to serve, and that means for victims, too. That’s why it was important for us to choose to endorse Marsy’s Law for North Dakota,” Sheriff Steven Rohrer, president of the ND Sheriffs Association.[/mks_pullquote]

You can read the resolution here. The full press release is below.

“We as Sheriffs of North Dakota work to protect and to serve, and that means for victims, too. That’s why it was important for us to choose to endorse Marsy’s Law for North Dakota,” Sheriff Steven Rohrer, president of the ND Sheriffs Association. Rohrer works in Benson County (Minnewauken).

The endorsement perhaps isn’t surprising given the number of high-profile sheriffs serving on the measure’s sponsoring committee. Burleigh County Sheriff Pat Heinert, Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney and Grand Forks County Sheriff Bob Rost are all on the committee.

It’s a big endorsement for the measure, to be sure. There’s no question the measure will make the ballot – anyone with enough money can put a measure on North Dakota’s ballot, and this one is bankrolled by California tech billionaire Henry Nichols – but they’ve certainly got bad timing.

With the lawyers groups likely to poke holes in the measure, and with criminal defense and wrongful prosecution very much on the minds of the public after the Making a Murderer phenomena, and with North Dakota seemingly a bit weary of these sort of measures after crowded ballots over the last few cycles, I think the Marsy’s Law supporters are going to have an uphill climb even with a well-funded campaign.