Wyoming​’s Casper Star-Tribune recent­ly point­ed out why many fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims favor life-with­out-parole sen­tences over the death penal­ty . “[I]t may be a sur­prise that many fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims pre­fer the life with­out parole sen­tence, sim­ply because it puts the killer away for­ev­er with­out the decades-long court appeals that can accom­pa­ny a death sen­tence,” the paper wrote. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed that there is only one per­son on the state’s death row, and he is there for a crime com­mit­ted 25 years ago. Attention to the case often focus­es on the defen­dant rather than the vic­tim. Read the editorial below.

Life with­out parole a bet­ter choice for many fam­i­lies of victims

When the two young Cody men who gunned down three mem­bers of a fam­i­ly in Clark received sen­tences of life with­out parole instead of the death penal­ty, some ques­tioned if that was a just sen­tence for such a cold-blooded crime.

But it may be a sur­prise that many fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims pre­fer the life with­out parole sen­tence, sim­ply because it puts the killer away for­ev­er with­out the decades-long court appeals that can accom­pa­ny a death sentence.

The life with­out parole sen­tences mean that Tanner Vanpelt and Stephen Hammer will not be able to get out of prison – ever. The two, both 19 when the mur­ders were com­mit­ted, plead­ed guilty to killing Ildiko Freitas, 40, and her par­ents, 70-year-old Janos Volgyesi and 69-year-old HIldegard Volgyesi on March 2. Prosecutors said that the teens had stolen guns from a Cody pawn shop and came to the home of their vic­tims to steal a car.

The Powell Tribune report­ed that Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric agreed to seek life sen­tences instead of the death penal­ty, with the agree­ment of law enforce­ment and Freitas’ fam­i­ly. The sen­tences for Vanpelt and Hammer, imposed by District Court Judge Steven Cranfill were the result of a plea agree­ment. Skoric could have cho­sen to pur­sue the death penal­ty, but agreed to life sen­tences with the sup­port of the fam­i­ly of the three victims

Thomas Volgyesi, the younger broth­er of one mur­der vic­tim and son of the oth­er two, said in court that while the two 19-year-old killers deserved the death penal­ty, he sup­port­ed the life with­out parole sen­tence, say­ing that exe­cu­tion would not bring him any closure.

Years of pain for sur­vivors
The fam­i­ly of Lisa Marie Kimmell is still hear­ing about the man who killed 18-year-old Kimmell and dumped her body in the North Platte River 25 years ago.

Dale Wayne Eaton is the only per­son on Wyoming’s death row for the mur­der, but appeals to the death sen­tence will con­tin­ue into 2014, when a fed­er­al judge will rule on Eaton’s chal­lenge to the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his death sentence.

The 40th anniver­sary of the Fremont Canyon crimes against Becky Thomson and her sis­ter Amy Burridge on Sept. 24 remind­ed us of how the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole for the men who com­mit­ted the crimes tor­tured the sur­vivor for years.

Both sis­ters were thrown from the 100-foot plus bridge in Fremont Canyon, killing 11-year-old Burridge on impact.

It was Thomson who sur­vived the fall with her hip bro­ken in five places and climbed out of the canyon after hid­ing dur­ing the night from the killers. She lived to tes­ti­fy against Ronald Leroy Kennedy and Jerry Lee Jenkins and they were giv­en the death penalty.

The two, in their late 20s the night of the crimes, were con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der, rape, and assault and bat­tery. Their death sen­tences were reduced to life in prison in 1977 when the Wyoming Supreme Court over­turned the state’s death penalty.

Thomson then faced anoth­er steep climb to sur­vive the fear she bat­tled that the killers would be paroled after their death penal­ties were com­mut­ed to life in prison.

She talked pub­licly about her fears that the men, who she said appeared to threat­en her in court when she tes­ti­fied against them, would get out of prison and come to fin­ish their attempt to kill her.

She had tes­ti­fied against them both, and she said Kennedy mocked her by grin­ning and draw­ing his fin­ger across his throat.

As Kennedy appealed his con­vic­tion and legal­ly required parole hear­ings occurred, Thomson col­lect­ed box­es and box­es of peti­tion sig­na­tures against parole.

Those peti­tions were part of the dis­cus­sion when Wyoming did enact a law cre­at­ing a life with­out parole sen­tence in 2001. By then Thomson had been dead for nine years, after either falling or jump­ing from the same Fremont Canyon Bridge.

Victims and their fam­i­lies now in Wyoming have some­thing that Thomson did­n’t — the pos­sil­i­ty of a life sen­tence with­out parole and what­ev­er reas­sur­ance it may give them.

(“Life with­out parole a bet­ter choice for many fam­i­lies of vic­tims,” Casper Star-Tribune, Editorial, October 9, 2013). See Life Without Parole, Victims, and Editorials.

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