Jeanne Bishop has writ­ten a new book about her life and spir­i­tu­al jour­ney after her sis­ter was mur­dered in Illinois in 1990. Change of Heart: Justice, Mercy, and Making Peace with My Sister’s Killer tells Bishop’s per­son­al sto­ry of grief, loss, and of her even­tu­al efforts to con­front and rec­on­cile with her sis­ter’s killer. She also address­es larg­er issues of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, life sen­tences for juve­nile offend­ers, and restora­tive jus­tice. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan said of the book, ​“When I com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of every­one on Illinois’s death row, I expressed the hope that we could open our hearts and pro­vide some­thing for vic­tims’ fam­i­lies oth­er than the hope of revenge. I quot­ed Abraham Lincoln: ​‘I have always found that mer­cy bears rich­er fruits than strict jus­tice.’ Jeanne Bishop’s com­pelling book tells the sto­ry of how devo­tion to her faith took her face-to-face with her sis­ter’s killer .… She reminds us of a core truth: that our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem can­not be just without mercy.”

(J. Bishop, ​“Change of Heart: Justice, Mercy, and Making Peace with My Sister’s Killer,” Westminster John Knox Press, 2015; DPIC post­ed Feb. 19, 2015). See Books and Victims.

Citation Guide