The par­ents and three chil­dren of Louisiana mur­der vic­tim Kim Groves have asked the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to for­go seek­ing the death penal­ty for co-defen­dants Paul Hardy and Len Davis. In a let­ter to pros­e­cu­tors, the Groves fam­i­ly urged U.S attor­neys to halt pro­ceed­ings that might lead to death sen­tences in rehear­ings for both defen­dants.

​“Executing these two men will not bring Kim Groves back to life. It will not ease the deep sor­row and loss that her fam­i­ly has and will con­tin­ue to expe­ri­ence as a result of her death…Perversely, it appears that he (Davis) has enjoyed the atten­tion and noto­ri­ety which his vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to the death penal­ty has pro­vid­ed. The fam­i­ly believes the death penal­ty would in fact be the less­er of the pun­ish­ments and that the final­i­ty and dura­tion of a life sen­tence would be much more dif­fi­cult and severe to Mr. Davis, in par­tic­u­lar, than death,” the let­ter stat­ed.

The let­ter, which was also addressed to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was entered into the court record last week. The pre­sid­ing judge ruled that if pros­e­cu­tors have fam­i­ly mem­bers tes­ti­fy­ing about the facts of the crime, the let­ter may be used on Davis’ behalf. 

(Times-Picayune, July 27, 2005). See Victims and Federal Death Penalty.

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