Lansing - Clifton Powers clenched his jaw as he remembered his brother’s murder in July 1999.
“He was killed in his business,” the advertising junior said. “He was staying late one night, and he got robbed and was killed. It was really hard for our family.”
Powers and his mother joined several hundred other crime victims and their families at the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday evening in a Crime Victims’ Rights Week vigil.
The theme of the program, “Bringing Honor to Victims,” featured speakers like Sen. William Van Regenmorter, R-Georgetown Township, a program leader.
Van Regenmorter said he became involved in fighting for crime victims when he realized the minuscule extent of their rights in Michigan. He is the sponsor of a 1988 amendment to the Michigan Constitution that provides protects these victims.
The senator said the vigil, which is only one facet of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, always has received a positive response.
“Every year we have this week to ensure that victims are remembered and they know they have rights,” he said. “We hold this victims vigil - and some prominent figure makes comments.”
This year, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan spoke to the group. Corrigan, whose husband died four months ago as a result of an illness, said she feels many of the same emotions as her audience.
The difference, she said, is that she lost her husband to nature - not human violence.
“Our journeys through grief are different,” she said. “But I still think we have much to say to each other.
“When we are confronted with emotional pain or loss, some people give up, some destroy everything that surrounds them, some push away everything that is good. Some of us lock hope away in a box and put it in the attic and throw away the key.
“But then there are other people that embrace sadness and pain - and search for the possibility of peace, no matter how distant or impossible that may be.”
After her speech, the crowd fell to a hush for a moment of remembrance and silence that filled the rotunda and spilled into the halls.
John Lazet, chief of staff for Van Regenmorter, said the vigil part of the program is when victims can share their grief as a community.
“Victims are the hidden people in the criminal justice system. A part of this is telling society that violent crime cannot be justified - it cannot be tolerated.”
