Joyce's brother was murdered and she has attended several Victims Visitors' Days including the most recent in Dahlonega.
Joyce says crime victims should attend one of these events.
"We feel like it has been a great help to us, we would recommend it for anyone. We’ve gotten information,
we’ve gotten what the actual parole process is and how it works, and
what we can do to prevent him from getting out of prison," stated Joyce.
“We have felt that everyone that we have been involved with from the parole board member as well as everyone that has communicated to us prior to the meeting, as well as at the meetings, has been excellent as far as the communication, as far as their politeness and their sincerity. We have just been totally impressed.”
1: District Attorney Jeff Langley with Rick and Sheila Cox
2: Hearing Examiner Steve Baustin and Parole Board Chairman Terry Barnard are meeting with crime victims.
3: Vice Chairman James Mills
4: Board Member Braxton Cotton
5. Jeanette Blay and Keir Chapple, Georgia Office of Victim Services
are victims as a result of the murder of Rick's brother. The Victims Visitors' Day (VVD) in Dahlonega was their first.
"I would suggest that anybody that is a victim of a crime attend one of these things because it is absolutely necessary to meet with all of these officials, with the people in the judicial system, the victim advocate people and it has been so helpful to us just to know that somebody cares and they’ve got this whole organization that we didn’t even know about until this (event)," stated Rick.
Sheila says as victims, by attending the VVD, they have learned so much about the services available to crime victims.
“We feel like we’ve been forgotten so much and now we have people to talk to that are in the same situation that we are in. We’ve found that there are so many different groups within the victim services, because we all don’t have the same story. So it’s been very beneficial to us," she said.
Rick Cox said it was a pleasure to get to meet Mr. Cotton and Mr. Thurman Henderson.
"You could tell they were very professional and how they were confident that they know what they are talking about. It was very informative. We asked them a lot of questions. They really did help us and they had the answers,” said Rick.
Voices OF GEORGIA crime victims
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Georgia Parole Review
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