Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights will release a new report on December 10 enti­tled ​“Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind.” Families of the exe­cut­ed are vic­tims, too, accord­ing to the new report, which draws upon the sto­ries of three dozen fam­i­ly mem­bers of inmates exe­cut­ed in the United States and demon­strates that their expe­ri­ences and trau­mat­ic symp­toms resem­ble those of many oth­ers who have suf­fered a vio­lent loss.

​“I don’t think peo­ple under­stand what exe­cu­tions do to the fam­i­lies of the per­son being exe­cut­ed,” says Billie Jean Mayberry, one of the fam­i­ly mem­bers fea­tured in the report. Mayberry’s broth­er, Robert Coe, was exe­cut­ed in Tennessee in 2000. ​“To us, our broth­er was mur­dered right in front of our eyes. It changed all of our lives.”

​“Creating More Victims” includes rec­om­men­da­tions for men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als, edu­ca­tors, and child wel­fare advo­cates. MVFHR also plans to deliv­er the report to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights and request that that office under­take fur­ther study of the impact of exe­cu­tions on surviving families. 

For a copy of the report, con­tact Susannah Sheffer, 617 – 512-2010, sheffer@​ispwest.​com. For more infor­ma­tion about MVFHR, vis­it www​.mvfhr​.org.
(MVFHR Press Release, December 10, 2006). See Victims and Studies.

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