Victims' Families

Statements from Murder Victims' Family Members

Support the Death Penalty

Anything oth­er than death would be a grave injus­tice as well as a dis­ser­vice to the lives, lega­cies and mem­o­ries of our deceased fam­i­ly mem­bers and to us, the imme­di­ate vic­tim-fam­i­ly mem­bers that live this night­mare each and every day.”

Additionally, we do NOT sup­port any form of plea bar­gain in this case,” the let­ter said. Proper jus­tice is not about seek­ing revenge or ret­ri­bu­tion. Our great loss­es can nev­er be repaired or remedied.”

July 2021 let­ter to Attorney General Merrick Garland from sev­en of the nine fam­i­lies who lost a rel­a­tive in the Tree of Life Synagogue shoot­ing (the fam­i­lies of Bernice and Sylvan Simon; Cecil and David Rosenthal; Daniel Stein; Richard Gottfried; Rose Mallinger; Joyce Fienberg and Melvin Wax)

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

The best pun­ish­ment, in my mind, would be to give the shoot­er a sen­tence and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to abjure his hate­ful beliefs about Jews and immi­grants and work for tol­er­ance and valu­ing diver­si­ty in our country.”

Beth Kissileff, wife of Rabbi Jonathan Perlman who sur­vived the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting

If you can’t get the death penal­ty for killing 17 in a school, I don’t know what you can get the death penalty for.”

Ryan Petty, father of Alaina Petty, one of the vic­tims of the 2018 Parkland Shooting in Florida. Many vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers were in sup­port of the death penal­ty for Nikolas Cruz

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

In oppo­si­tion to the exe­cu­tion of Nikolas Cruz: But I would say that I have been try­ing to see him more as a human rather than the typ­i­cal nar­ra­tive that he’s a hor­ri­ble per­son who is com­plete­ly, irrecov­er­ably bad and evil and that we must purge him from the Earth.”

Robert Schentrup, broth­er of Carmen, who was among those killed in the 2018 Parkland Shooting

This man gets to sit and get his med­i­cine for his dia­betes, gets food every day and gets to go out­side. And my friend is gone.”

Somebody like him should­n’t be able to breathe the air that we breathe. …The night­mares might end if he’s gone.”

Rhonda Whitelock, life­long friend of Suzanne Taylor who was killed along with her two daugh­ters by George Brinkman

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

In oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty: When it comes to my fam­i­ly and myself, I want this to be over, and it’s not over.”

Instead the mon­ey could be bet­ter used for vic­tims’ ser­vices: We’re talk­ing about trau­ma cen­ters, we’re talk­ing about help­ing peo­ple with funer­ary expens­es, with coun­sel­ing. There is a litany of ser­vices that could help all vic­tims of crime.”

Jonathan Mann, mem­ber of Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE) and son of John who was killed by Thomas Knuff

11,932 days ago Donald Dillbeck bru­tal­ly killed our moth­er. We were robbed of years of mem­o­ries with her and it has been very painful ever since. However, the exe­cu­tion has giv­en us some closure.”

Tony and Laura Vann, chil­dren of Faye Lamb Vann who was killed by Donald Dillbeck

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

One of my par­ents’ killers is on death row in Pennsylvania. I can­not imag­ine what good it would do to kill a per­son who is incar­cer­at­ed and away from the pub­lic. No one would be made safer. However, I can think of many peo­ple who would be harmed by his death — includ­ing his inno­cent fam­i­ly mem­bers and the prison work­ers who would be asked to car­ry out his exe­cu­tion. Not a sin­gle per­son would be healed.”

Megan Smith, daugh­ter of mur­der vic­tim Terry Smith, step­daugh­ter of mur­der vic­tim Lucy Smith, and a mid­dle school teacher

I don’t know if today was jus­tice. I don’t know if today was clo­sure. … I do know I am glad the ene­my is dead. I believe this was the only way to end this night­mare my fam­i­ly has endured for all these years.”

Justin Wyatt, a grand­son of A.J. Cantrell and Patsy Cantrell killed by Scott Eizember

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Each of us has had a loved one tak­en from us by homi­cide. At a moment none of us could have pre­dict­ed or pre­pared for, sense­less vio­lence took from us chil­dren, par­ents, spous­es, sib­lings and oth­er loved ones. Our direct expe­ri­ences with the legal sys­tem and our strug­gles with grief have led us all to the same con­clu­sion: The death penal­ty fails vic­tims’ families.”

North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCAP) Homicide Survivor Engagement Group let­ter to Governor Roy Cooper (December 2022)

To know that he will nev­er walk this Earth again does give me a lit­tle more peace than I had yes­ter­day, but I will nev­er have peace know­ing what he did to my broth­er Donnie, to Amy, to James and to Terry. He got what he deserved today.”

Shelli Milner, sis­ter of Donnie Swindle, one of the four peo­ple killed by Gilbert Ray Postelle

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

When author­i­ties caught the per­son respon­si­ble a few days lat­er, I was sur­prised and also relieved that one of the first things my father said to me was that he didn’t want the death penal­ty. We felt it would be more trau­ma­tiz­ing to see this per­son put to death and to have to endure decades of legal uncer­tain­ty. We also learned that the young woman who fatal­ly stabbed my uncle and stole his car had endured ter­ri­ble trau­ma through­out her life. This in no way jus­ti­fied what she had done, but some­how, it helped me to bet­ter under­stand the cir­cum­stances that had led to the death of my uncle.”

Monique Normand, niece of mur­der vic­tim Willie Normand and board mem­ber of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Although Donald Grant’s exe­cu­tion does not bring Brenda back, it allows us all to final­ly move for­ward know­ing jus­tice was served.”

Shirl Pilcher, sis­ter of Brenda McElyea who was killed by Donald Grant.

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Regarded the life sen­tence imposed by the court as a much more just sen­tence” than the death penalty. 

In a news con­fer­ence out­side the cour­t­house, she said this sen­tenc­ing make[s] clear to all who dare to kid­nap, tor­ture, or kill any American cit­i­zen abroad that U.S. jus­tice will find you wher­ev­er you are, and that our gov­ern­ment will hold you account­able for your crimes against our citizens.”

Diane Foley, moth­er of jour­nal­ist James Foley who was kid­napped and killed by Islamic State mil­i­tant El Shafee Elsheikh

Regarding Mr. Taylor’s exe­cu­tion: Justice was served. Now, I get a little peace.”

Gerjuan Rowe, sis­ter of Angela Rowe on who was killed by Leonard Taylor

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

I don’t rel­ish the thought of [Fields] get­ting the death penal­ty. That’s my belief. I’d rather him get his heart straight and get life [in prison].” 

Mark Heyer, father of Heather Heyer who was killed in 2017 while protest­ing a white suprema­cist ral­ly in Charlottesville, Virginia

Today’s not a good day, it’s not a bad day, it’s just a new day for our fam­i­ly. We can final­ly move on. It’s not going to heal any­thing, but it clos­es this chapter.”

Mitchell Hale, son of vic­tim Albert Hale, told reporters after attend­ing the exe­cu­tion of James Coddington

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Yes, our loved one was mur­dered. We want the truth about what hap­pened, and we want the killer held account­able in a way that he can’t do it again. No amount of killing is going to bring our loved one back, and we cer­tain­ly don’t want the state using our pain and suf­fer­ing to jus­ti­fy anoth­er fam­i­ly los­ing their loved one — even if they are guilty.”

LaShawn Ajamu, sis­ter of mur­der vic­tim James Nero and wife of death row exoneree Kwame Ajamu 

When asked if she want­ed Mr. Owen to be exe­cut­ed, she replied: Yes, with­out a doubt. Without a doubt. He looked into my sister’s eyes when she died, and I will look into his eyes when he dies.”

Debbi Johnson, sis­ter of Karen Slattery who was killed by Duane Owen

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Given what I know now, I can no longer sup­port Colorado’s bro­ken death penal­ty sys­tem. What’s more, I will work to end it to ensure that our resources are bet­ter used and no fam­i­ly ever has to go through what my wife and I have endured.”

Bob Autobee, father of slain Colorado cor­rec­tions offi­cer Eric Autobee

There’s mon­sters out there that need to be got­ten rid of, that need to be put down like the dogs they are. There’s no excuse for it.” 

I hope he rots in hell. I real­ly do. He’s a very manipulative individual.”

William Long, father of Jennifer Long who was killed by Wesley Purkey

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Our soci­ety is con­flict­ed about the death penal­ty. I rec­og­nize and respect the diver­si­ty of opin­ions about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment among sur­vivors of mur­der vic­tims. Unlike those of many death-penal­ty oppo­nents, my views are vic­tim-cen­tered. My oppo­si­tion is not root­ed in what an exe­cu­tion does to a con­demned pris­on­er but in what a sys­tem that embraces the rit­u­al killing by gov­ern­ment employ­ees of an inca­pac­i­tat­ed pris­on­er does to me – to us, as indi­vid­u­als and as a society.”

Renny Cushing, son of mur­der vic­tim Robert Cushing, broth­er-in-law of mur­der vic­tim Stephen McRedmond, New Hampshire state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, and founder of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights 

Regarding Rhoades’ exe­cu­tion: I want­ed to watch him die.”

Marley Allen Holt, daugh­ter of Bradley Allen killed by Rick Rhoades

Support Alternatives to the Death Penalty

We also oppose the death penal­ty because it his­tor­i­cal­ly has been used in Mississippi and the South pri­mar­i­ly against peo­ple of col­or for killing whites. Executing James’ killers will not help bal­ance the scales. But spar­ing them may help to spark a dia­logue that one day will lead to the elim­i­na­tion of capital punishment.”

Barbara Anderson Young, sis­ter of mur­der vic­tim James Anderson

Support the Death PenaltySupport Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Anything oth­er than death would be a grave injus­tice as well as a dis­ser­vice to the lives, lega­cies and mem­o­ries of our deceased fam­i­ly mem­bers and to us, the imme­di­ate vic­tim-fam­i­ly mem­bers that live this night­mare each and every day.”

Additionally, we do NOT sup­port any form of plea bar­gain in this case,” the let­ter said. Proper jus­tice is not about seek­ing revenge or ret­ri­bu­tion. Our great loss­es can nev­er be repaired or remedied.”

July 2021 let­ter to Attorney General Merrick Garland from sev­en of the nine fam­i­lies who lost a rel­a­tive in the Tree of Life Synagogue shoot­ing (the fam­i­lies of Bernice and Sylvan Simon; Cecil and David Rosenthal; Daniel Stein; Richard Gottfried; Rose Mallinger; Joyce Fienberg and Melvin Wax)

The best pun­ish­ment, in my mind, would be to give the shoot­er a sen­tence and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to abjure his hate­ful beliefs about Jews and immi­grants and work for tol­er­ance and valu­ing diver­si­ty in our country.”

Beth Kissileff, wife of Rabbi Jonathan Perlman who sur­vived the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting

If you can’t get the death penal­ty for killing 17 in a school, I don’t know what you can get the death penalty for.”

Ryan Petty, father of Alaina Petty, one of the vic­tims of the 2018 Parkland Shooting in Florida. Many vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers were in sup­port of the death penal­ty for Nikolas Cruz

In oppo­si­tion to the exe­cu­tion of Nikolas Cruz: But I would say that I have been try­ing to see him more as a human rather than the typ­i­cal nar­ra­tive that he’s a hor­ri­ble per­son who is com­plete­ly, irrecov­er­ably bad and evil and that we must purge him from the Earth.”

Robert Schentrup, broth­er of Carmen, who was among those killed in the 2018 Parkland Shooting

This man gets to sit and get his med­i­cine for his dia­betes, gets food every day and gets to go out­side. And my friend is gone.”

Somebody like him should­n’t be able to breathe the air that we breathe. …The night­mares might end if he’s gone.”

Rhonda Whitelock, life­long friend of Suzanne Taylor who was killed along with her two daugh­ters by George Brinkman

In oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty: When it comes to my fam­i­ly and myself, I want this to be over, and it’s not over.”

Instead the mon­ey could be bet­ter used for vic­tims’ ser­vices: We’re talk­ing about trau­ma cen­ters, we’re talk­ing about help­ing peo­ple with funer­ary expens­es, with coun­sel­ing. There is a litany of ser­vices that could help all vic­tims of crime.”

Jonathan Mann, mem­ber of Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE) and son of John who was killed by Thomas Knuff

11,932 days ago Donald Dillbeck bru­tal­ly killed our moth­er. We were robbed of years of mem­o­ries with her and it has been very painful ever since. However, the exe­cu­tion has giv­en us some closure.”

Tony and Laura Vann, chil­dren of Faye Lamb Vann who was killed by Donald Dillbeck

One of my par­ents’ killers is on death row in Pennsylvania. I can­not imag­ine what good it would do to kill a per­son who is incar­cer­at­ed and away from the pub­lic. No one would be made safer. However, I can think of many peo­ple who would be harmed by his death — includ­ing his inno­cent fam­i­ly mem­bers and the prison work­ers who would be asked to car­ry out his exe­cu­tion. Not a sin­gle per­son would be healed.”

Megan Smith, daugh­ter of mur­der vic­tim Terry Smith, step­daugh­ter of mur­der vic­tim Lucy Smith, and a mid­dle school teacher

I don’t know if today was jus­tice. I don’t know if today was clo­sure. … I do know I am glad the ene­my is dead. I believe this was the only way to end this night­mare my fam­i­ly has endured for all these years.”

Justin Wyatt, a grand­son of A.J. Cantrell and Patsy Cantrell killed by Scott Eizember

Each of us has had a loved one tak­en from us by homi­cide. At a moment none of us could have pre­dict­ed or pre­pared for, sense­less vio­lence took from us chil­dren, par­ents, spous­es, sib­lings and oth­er loved ones. Our direct expe­ri­ences with the legal sys­tem and our strug­gles with grief have led us all to the same con­clu­sion: The death penal­ty fails vic­tims’ families.”

North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCAP) Homicide Survivor Engagement Group let­ter to Governor Roy Cooper (December 2022)

To know that he will nev­er walk this Earth again does give me a lit­tle more peace than I had yes­ter­day, but I will nev­er have peace know­ing what he did to my broth­er Donnie, to Amy, to James and to Terry. He got what he deserved today.”

Shelli Milner, sis­ter of Donnie Swindle, one of the four peo­ple killed by Gilbert Ray Postelle

When author­i­ties caught the per­son respon­si­ble a few days lat­er, I was sur­prised and also relieved that one of the first things my father said to me was that he didn’t want the death penal­ty. We felt it would be more trau­ma­tiz­ing to see this per­son put to death and to have to endure decades of legal uncer­tain­ty. We also learned that the young woman who fatal­ly stabbed my uncle and stole his car had endured ter­ri­ble trau­ma through­out her life. This in no way jus­ti­fied what she had done, but some­how, it helped me to bet­ter under­stand the cir­cum­stances that had led to the death of my uncle.”

Monique Normand, niece of mur­der vic­tim Willie Normand and board mem­ber of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Although Donald Grant’s exe­cu­tion does not bring Brenda back, it allows us all to final­ly move for­ward know­ing jus­tice was served.”

Shirl Pilcher, sis­ter of Brenda McElyea who was killed by Donald Grant.

Regarded the life sen­tence imposed by the court as a much more just sen­tence” than the death penalty. 

In a news con­fer­ence out­side the cour­t­house, she said this sen­tenc­ing make[s] clear to all who dare to kid­nap, tor­ture, or kill any American cit­i­zen abroad that U.S. jus­tice will find you wher­ev­er you are, and that our gov­ern­ment will hold you account­able for your crimes against our citizens.”

Diane Foley, moth­er of jour­nal­ist James Foley who was kid­napped and killed by Islamic State mil­i­tant El Shafee Elsheikh

Regarding Mr. Taylor’s exe­cu­tion: Justice was served. Now, I get a little peace.”

Gerjuan Rowe, sis­ter of Angela Rowe on who was killed by Leonard Taylor

I don’t rel­ish the thought of [Fields] get­ting the death penal­ty. That’s my belief. I’d rather him get his heart straight and get life [in prison].” 

Mark Heyer, father of Heather Heyer who was killed in 2017 while protest­ing a white suprema­cist ral­ly in Charlottesville, Virginia

Today’s not a good day, it’s not a bad day, it’s just a new day for our fam­i­ly. We can final­ly move on. It’s not going to heal any­thing, but it clos­es this chapter.”

Mitchell Hale, son of vic­tim Albert Hale, told reporters after attend­ing the exe­cu­tion of James Coddington

Yes, our loved one was mur­dered. We want the truth about what hap­pened, and we want the killer held account­able in a way that he can’t do it again. No amount of killing is going to bring our loved one back, and we cer­tain­ly don’t want the state using our pain and suf­fer­ing to jus­ti­fy anoth­er fam­i­ly los­ing their loved one — even if they are guilty.”

LaShawn Ajamu, sis­ter of mur­der vic­tim James Nero and wife of death row exoneree Kwame Ajamu 

When asked if she want­ed Mr. Owen to be exe­cut­ed, she replied: Yes, with­out a doubt. Without a doubt. He looked into my sister’s eyes when she died, and I will look into his eyes when he dies.”

Debbi Johnson, sis­ter of Karen Slattery who was killed by Duane Owen

Given what I know now, I can no longer sup­port Colorado’s bro­ken death penal­ty sys­tem. What’s more, I will work to end it to ensure that our resources are bet­ter used and no fam­i­ly ever has to go through what my wife and I have endured.”

Bob Autobee, father of slain Colorado cor­rec­tions offi­cer Eric Autobee

There’s mon­sters out there that need to be got­ten rid of, that need to be put down like the dogs they are. There’s no excuse for it.” 

I hope he rots in hell. I real­ly do. He’s a very manipulative individual.”

William Long, father of Jennifer Long who was killed by Wesley Purkey

Our soci­ety is con­flict­ed about the death penal­ty. I rec­og­nize and respect the diver­si­ty of opin­ions about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment among sur­vivors of mur­der vic­tims. Unlike those of many death-penal­ty oppo­nents, my views are vic­tim-cen­tered. My oppo­si­tion is not root­ed in what an exe­cu­tion does to a con­demned pris­on­er but in what a sys­tem that embraces the rit­u­al killing by gov­ern­ment employ­ees of an inca­pac­i­tat­ed pris­on­er does to me – to us, as indi­vid­u­als and as a society.”

Renny Cushing, son of mur­der vic­tim Robert Cushing, broth­er-in-law of mur­der vic­tim Stephen McRedmond, New Hampshire state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, and founder of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights 

Regarding Rhoades’ exe­cu­tion: I want­ed to watch him die.”

Marley Allen Holt, daugh­ter of Bradley Allen killed by Rick Rhoades

We also oppose the death penal­ty because it his­tor­i­cal­ly has been used in Mississippi and the South pri­mar­i­ly against peo­ple of col­or for killing whites. Executing James’ killers will not help bal­ance the scales. But spar­ing them may help to spark a dia­logue that one day will lead to the elim­i­na­tion of capital punishment.”

Barbara Anderson Young, sis­ter of mur­der vic­tim James Anderson