Voices of Victims News
2007 Accomplishments
December 1, 2007
Dear Friends,
Because of your caring we wanted to give you an update on what we accomplished this year. We were able to provide hotel rooms to 15 victim families, air fare from California for 1 victim, gasoline money to 2 victims, and car rental for 1 victim, enabling them to attend parole hearings across the state.
We accompanied 69 victims to 28 parole hearings, 34 victims to 16 half-way house hearings and 4 victims to re-sentencing hearings.
We also drove 7 victims to parole hearings in Sterling, Brush, Pueblo, and Canon City .
Your donations allow us to continue our work to support victims of violent crime. Thank you again for your generosity.
Sincerely,
Joe Cannata, Executive Director
National Crime Victims Week Recognition
On Friday April 27, Joe Cannata was recognized for his continuing service to support victims of violent crime at a ceremony during National Crime Victims Week. During the ceremony, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey presented Joe with the Denver District Attorney’s Civil Courage Award for his tireless efforts. Mitch stated he was proud of all the relentless work Joe has done over the years and also gave credit to Joe’s wife Kaye who was also in attendance.
Joe and Kaye have taken the tragedy they experienced and decided to use their experience to create a positive situation. Their pregnant daughter Lynn was stabbed to death,on July 2,1987, in front of her two year old son by Lawrence C. Garcia, her boyfriend at that time. It was a difficult time for the Cannatas and they learned on their own how to deal with the justice system. They noticed along their journey that there were gaps in the system. Being tireless as Mitch pointed out as one of Joe’s traits during the ceremony, Joe pursued the passage of three separate laws over the years since Lynn’s death and one law which requires violent offenders to serve at least 75% of their sentence was dubbed Lynn’s Law in memory of their daughter.
The Cannatas haven’t stopped and continue to champion victim’s rights. Most recently they established Voices of Victims where Joe is the Executive Director. This is a non-profit in the State of Colorado to exclusively provide post sentencing support to victims of violent crime. They have decided to sell their cleaning business of 31 years to devote themselves full time to this effort. For more information on Voices of Victims , please call 303-777-0112.
Published in the Parents of Murdered Children Newsletter, June-July 2007 issue