Another victim loss in a CVRA ruling from the Tenth Circuit

Today the Tenth Circuit has issues another opinion in the interesting victims rights case In re Antrobus (available here).  Here is the concluding section of the opinion:

This case has a frustrating procedural history.  It is, for example, regrettable that the petitioners were not given access to the ATF report, given the government’s lack of opposition.  But in our system we do not possess perpetual power to revisit regrettable results, especially those we are never asked to review.

In the end, there is no one to blame here.  The CVRA is a relatively new statute that effects dramatic changes to our traditional criminal justice system.  The participants in that system—prosecutors, defendants, victims, and courts alike—are rightfully struggling with its scope and meaning.  Understandably, the process of working out these changes may not be perfect.  District courts and prosecutors must become sensitive to Congress’s new demand that victims have a seat at the table. At the same time, all litigants have to be aware of the constraints associated with efforts to relitigate issues repeatedly, and the scope of our review under law.