Mother of Murder Victim: ​“The Death Penalty Would Inflict Additional Pain on Us”

Duval County, Florida pros­e­cu­tors are seek­ing the death penal­ty for the 2013 mur­der of Shelby Farah (pic­tured), over the objec­tions of Ms. Farah’s fam­i­ly. After unsuc­cess­ful attempts to per­suade pros­e­cu­tors to non-cap­i­tal­ly resolve the case, Darlene Farah, Ms. Farah’s moth­er, pub­licly expressed her views in a recent col­umn in TIME. Farah said, ​“I do not want my fam­i­ly to go through the years of tri­als and appeals that come with death-penal­ty cas­es.” Instead, she wants her fam­i­ly to be able to, ​“cel­e­brate [Shelby’s] life, hon­or her mem­o­ry and begin the lengthy heal­ing process.” Darlene Farah says her daugh­ter would not have want­ed the death penal­ty to be sought on her behalf, and ​“more killing in no way hon­ors my daughter’s mem­o­ry or pro­vides solace to my fam­i­ly.” Duval County is among the 2% of U.S. coun­ties that are respon­si­ble for a major­i­ty of U.S. death sen­tences and is rep­re­sent­ed by a pros­e­cu­tor’s office that has sent more peo­ple to death row since 2009 than any oth­er pros­e­cu­tor’s office in the state. Farah has asked pros­e­cu­tors to accept the defense offer to plead guilty to all charges, but she says “[pros­e­cu­tors’] desire for the death penal­ty in my daughter’s case seems so strong that they are ignor­ing the wish­es of my fam­i­ly in their pur­suit of it.” Farah said the use of the death penal­ty is imped­ing the heal­ing process: ​“Death-penal­ty cas­es are incred­i­bly com­plex and drawn-out. It’s been two and a half years since my daughter’s mur­der, and the tri­al hasn’t even started…[W]e can’t start to heal and move beyond the legal process, which nev­er seems to end.” ​“I have seen my fam­i­ly torn apart since my daughter’s mur­der, and the idea of hav­ing to face the lengthy legal process asso­ci­at­ed with a death-penal­ty case is unbear­able. We have endured enough pain and tragedy already.”

(D. Farah, ​“My Daughter’s Killer Should Not Get the Death Penalty,” TIME, February 19, 2016; L. Robbins, ​“Victim’s moth­er urges State Attorney Angela Corey to take death penal­ty off the table,” WTLV First Coast News, February 24, 2016; Image by Darlene Farah, via WOKV News.) See Victims and New Voices.