When my son Adam was murdered, my wife Revé and I learned the painful truth about America's criminal justice system. We were suddenly thrust into an ordeal we never imagined we would have to deal with. Never in our wildest dreams -- not even our worst nightmare -- did we ever imagine that something so horrible could, much less would, happen to Adam.

Each year 40 million Americans become victims of crimes. Behind each of these numbers is a terrible trauma, a story of unimaginable personal suffering and loss. Yet the needs of victims are an afterthought in our criminal justice system. We protect the rights of criminals; we must take equal care to protect the rights of victims. Here's a typical experience, in the words of one victim: "They explained the defendant's constitutional right to the nth degree. They couldn't do this and they couldn't do that because of his constitutional rights. And I wondered what mine were. And they told me, I hadn't got any."

Too often, our system treats victims as irrelevant bystanders and they feel as though they're being victimized for a second time.