Statutes: Guam

(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 parent of an adult deceased victim, or to an adult son or daughter of a deceased victim, where 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.