A recent CNN per­spec­tive exam­ined the views of those they called ​“the most unlike­ly oppo­nents of the death penal­ty, peo­ple who lost loved ones to unspeak­able vio­lence yet believe exe­cut­ing the killer will do noth­ing for fam­i­ly mem­bers or soci­ety.” For exam­ple, Ross Byrd, the son of James Byrd, Jr., who was dragged to his death behind a truck in Texas by Lawrence Brewer, nev­er­the­less object­ed to Brewer’s exe­cu­tion, say­ing ​“You can’t fight mur­der with mur­der.” In Mississippi, the moth­er and sib­lings of James Anderson asked for his killer’s life to be spared. In a let­ter to the dis­trict attor­ney, Barbara Anderson Young, Anderson’s sis­ter, cit­ed the fam­i­ly’s faith as one of the rea­sons why they opposed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. And Charisse Coleman, whose broth­er Russell (both pic­tured) was shot in a liquor store in Shreveport, Louisiana, point­ed to the fal­li­bil­i­ty of the sys­tem: ​“The crim­i­nal jus­tice [sys­tem],” she said, ​“is cre­at­ed by and con­duct­ed by humans. As long as we’re capa­ble of mak­ing mis­takes, we should­n’t be decid­ing who lives and dies.” Her views did not stem from sym­pa­thy for the defen­dant: ​“My oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty has noth­ing to do with Bobby Lee Hampton,” she said. ​“He’s a bad dude. He’s nev­er going to be a good dude. If I got a call that said Bobby Lee Hampton dropped dead in his cell last night, I don’t think it would cre­ate a rip­ple in my pond… [but] I will [not] let Bobby Lee Hampton make me a vic­tim, too, by tak­ing me down that road of bit­ter­ness and revenge.”

The piece not­ed the role that groups like Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights played in sup­port­ing peo­ple who have had a loved one murdered. 

(E. McLaughlin, ​“Death penal­ty’s unlike­ly oppo­nents,” CNN​.com, October 23, 2011). See Victims and New Voices.

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