The costs of the death penal­ty are more than finan­cial, they are emo­tion­al; and these effects are felt not just by the par­ties to the tri­al and the fam­i­lies of vic­tims and defen­dants, but by the jurors as well. A recent report in the Akron Beacon Journal describes the trau­mat­ic psy­cho­log­i­cal impact serv­ing in the Summit County, Ohio death penal­ty tri­al of Eric Hendon had on the jurors in that case. After a three-month tri­al and cap­i­tal-sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, the jury found Hendon guilty of a 2013 triple mur­der and sen­tenced him to life with­out parole. Before the tri­al even began, one juror wrote about her con­cerns about the death penal­ty, say­ing, ​“It is very dif­fi­cult for me to fath­om crime against peo­ple, espe­cial­ly vio­lent crime. It is equal­ly dif­fi­cult for me to fath­om how cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment can be good. I under­stand it is our law. If nec­es­sary, I will do my duty. I must admit, though, my hope com­ing in was that I would serve on a tri­al that would not tear my soul apart.” In the after­math of the tri­al, sev­er­al jurors said the expe­ri­ence had adverse­ly affect­ed them. One juror report­ed trou­ble sleep­ing for weeks after the tri­al end­ed. Another said he was haunt­ed by images of the crime. A white juror report­ed becom­ing para­noid after the tri­al, say­ing see­ing two black men (defen­dant Eric Hendon is also black) in an old­er mod­el car near his home ​“kind of freaked me out.” A num­ber of jurors did not want to talk to the press and, fear­ing harass­ment for their jury ser­vice, tried to keep their names and address­es from being released to the Beacon Journal. After the tri­al end­ed, Judge Amy Corrigan Jones held hear­ings to decide whether to release the jurors’ infor­ma­tion. Six jurors attend­ed the hear­ings and said they wor­ried for their safe­ty if their infor­ma­tion was released. One woman became emo­tion­al at the hear­ing, say­ing she did not want to relive the expe­ri­ence. ​“I don’t want to think about this,” she said. ​“I need to stop mess­ing with my life. I need to move on.”

(S. Warsmith, ​“Jurors on Summit County’s last death penal­ty case detail dif­fi­cult ser­vice,” Akron Beacon Journal, February 17, 2017.) See New Voices.

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