RESTITUTION SET ASIDE


 On July 17, 2013 the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals at San Antonio held for the defendant in an appeal where the defendant argued that the trial court did not have the authority to order her to pay $70,000 to charity as restitution as a condition of her probation on charges involving extortion. The victims of the extortion were unsuspecting men; the charity was not involved.

As a legal matter, "restitution" is money that a defendant is ordered to pay so that she will not be "unjustly enriched" by her crimes. It is the part of her punishment that attempts to "right the wrongs" for which she has been convicted. Accordingly, restitution may only be ordered to be paid to specific victims of the defendant's crime or to the crime victims' funds controlled by the State.

The defendant successfully argued that she could not be ordered to make restitution to a charity because she had not been convicted of a crime against any charities. Restitution is a necessary part of punishment, but it cannot and should not be ordered without adequate consideration of the law. Its purpose is to compensate victims, not to unnecessarily bankrupt defendants.

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