Guam § 161 - Eligibility for Compensation.

§ 161. Eligibility for Compensation.

(a) In the event any person is injured or killed by any act or

omission of any other person coming within the criminal

jurisdiction of Guam after September 30, 1980, which act or

omission is within the description of the crimes enumerated in

Section 161.55, the Commission may, in its discretion, upon an

application, order the payment of compensation in accordance

with this Chapter:

(1) to or for the benefit of the victim;

(2) to any person responsible for the maintenance of the

victim, where that person has suffered pecuniary loss or

incurred expenses as a result of the victim’s injury or death;

(3) in the case of the death of the victim, to or for the

benefit of any one (1) or more of the dependents of the

deceased victim; or

(4) to a spouse, to a parent of an adult deceased victim,

or to an adult son or daughter of a deceased victim, where in

the case of death of the victim, the spouse, the parent, or adult

son or daughter has incurred expenses on account of hospital,

medical, funeral, and burial expenses as a result of the

victim’s injury and death.

(b) For the purposes of this Chapter, a person shall be

deemed to have intentionally committed an act or omission,

notwithstanding that by reason of age, insanity, drunkenness or

otherwise, he or she was legally incapable of forming a criminal

intent.

(c) In determining whether to make an order under this

Section, the Commission may consider any circumstances it

determines to be relevant, and the Commission shall consider the

behavior of the victim, and whether, because of provocation or

otherwise, the victim bears any share of responsibility for the

crime that caused his or her injury or death, and the Commission

shall reduce the amount of compensation in accordance with its

assessment of the degree of such responsibility attributable to the

victim.

(d) An order may be made under this Section whether or not

any person is prosecuted for or convicted of a crime arising out of

an act or omission described in Subsection (a) of this Section;

provided, that an arrest has been made or such act or omission has

been reported to the police without undue delay. No order may be

made under this Section unless the Commission finds that:

(1) the act or omission did occur; and

(2) the injury or death of the victim resulted from the act

or omission.

(e) Upon application from either the Attorney General or the

Chief of Police, the Commission may suspend proceedings under

this Chapter for such period as it deems desirable on the ground

that a prosecution for a crime arising out of the act or omission

has been commenced or is imminent, or that release of the

investigation report would be detrimental to the public interest.

(f) If a resident of Guam is a victim of a crime as defined in

Section 161.55 of this Chapter, but the crime occurred outside the

boundaries of Guam, the resident has the same rights under the

provisions of this Chapter as if the crime had occurred within

Guam upon a showing that the state, territory, country or political

subdivision of a country in which the crime occurred does not

have a crime victim’s compensation law which covers the injury

or death suffered by the resident.