Mary Jo Speaker | Federal Service Award
Office of the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Oklahoma
Muskogee, Oklahoma
Mary Jo Speaker is the Victim Witness Specialist for the Office of the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Oklahoma. Speaker has provided victim services for more than 21 years. She has served as the victim witness specialist in highly demanding trials and prosecutions covering the spectrum of criminal jurisdiction—from capital murder cases, violent crime in Indian Country, bank robberies, and terrorism to family violence, child abuse, sexual violence, and white collar crime.
Since becoming a Federal Victim Witness Specialist just over 8 years ago, Speaker has served in the Victim Witness Center for the Oklahoma City bombing trials of McVeigh and Nichols and the execution of McVeigh; responded at the request of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys to establish a victim service center and provide services in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; attended to the traumatized and frightened victims in the trial of a serial sexual predator in a storied trial, appeal, and post-conviction complaint and appeal; and provided comprehensive services to the families in five murder cases, including two capital murder cases.
Some of her accomplishments include the establishment of a model prosecutor-based program in Oklahoma, creating a coloring book for child victims, and directing a court orientation video for victim witnesses. Not including the Oklahoma City bombing, Speaker has assisted the family members of more than 300 murdered victims. Speaker skillfully goes the extra mile to attend to the needs of victims in volatile, highly emotional, and professionally demanding settings.
Speaker was nominated by Sheldon J. Sperling, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.