Victoria Coward, whose son Tyler (pic­tured) was killed when he was 18, recent­ly peti­tioned Connecticut leg­is­la­tors to repeal the death penal­ty. Speaking of her son’s killer, Coward said, ​“In the begin­ning I was so mad, I did want him dead. Then I had to think about it. You don’t want any­one killing your son. Just get him off the street so he doesn’t do that to any­body else. Killing Jose [her son’s mur­der­er] isn’t going to help me… What would killing him [accom­plish]? My son is still gone…” (Her son’s killer was spared the death penal­ty at tri­al.) Coward sug­gest­ed putting the mon­ey spent on pros­e­cut­ing death penal­ty cas­es toward resources that would help mur­der vic­tims’ sur­vivors. Coward, along with oth­er mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers urged leg­is­la­tors to replace the death penal­ty with life in prison with­out parole. She had to wait until 1 a.m. to tes­ti­fy before the Judiciary Committee con­sid­er­ing the bill. The repeal bill, how­ev­er, was put on hold and like­ly will not be act­ed on this legislative session.

(P. Bass, ​“Her Plea Counted Less,” New Haven Independent, May 20, 2011). See Victims and New Voices.

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