Additional Resources

DPIC Resources

• Podcast: Rep. Renny Cushing on Empowering Crime Survivors and Repealing New Hampshire’s Death Penalty

Archival DPIC Content

• Victims News and Developments: 1998 – 2003

Related Websites

• National Center for Victims of Crime — pro­vides resources includ­ing a sup­port hot­line staffed by vic­tim advo­cates and refer­rals to support services.
• National Organization for Victim Assistance — pro­motes vic­tim rights and ser­vices through nation­al advo­ca­cy, direct ser­vices to vic­tims and assis­tance to professional colleagues.
• Office for Victims of Crime — over­sees diverse pro­grams that ben­e­fit vic­tims of crime.
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Alliance — pro­vides edu­ca­tion­al resources to those at risk of developing PTSD.
• Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights — is an orga­ni­za­tion with a nation­al and inter­na­tion­al focus active­ly work­ing to abol­ish the death penal­ty. MVFHR mem­bers are mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers and fam­i­ly mem­bers of the exe­cut­ed who are opposed to killing in all cas­es whether it be homi­cide, state killing, or extra­ju­di­cial killings and ​“dis­ap­pear­ances.”
• Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing — is an orga­ni­za­tion led by mur­der vic­tim fam­i­ly mem­bers joined by death row fam­i­ly mem­bers, fam­i­ly mem­bers of the exe­cut­ed, the exon­er­at­ed, and oth­ers with sto­ries to tell, that con­ducts pub­lic edu­ca­tion speak­ing tours and address­es alter­na­tives to the death penalty.
• California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty — is a coali­tion of fam­i­lies, friends, and loved ones of mur­der vic­tims who oppose the death penal­ty. The coali­tion sup­ports fam­i­lies, friends, and loved ones in telling their sto­ries and being heard.
• Victim Offender Mediation Association — pro­vides resources, train­ing, and tech­ni­cal assis­tance in vic­tim-offend­er medi­a­tion, con­fer­enc­ing, cir­cles, and relat­ed restora­tive justice practices.
• Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, Inc. (FOHVAMP) — is a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion work­ing in Colorado to find, sup­port and empow­er fam­i­lies suf­fer­ing from a loved one’s mur­der or long-time disappearance.

Reports and Studies

• Susan A. Bandes, Closure in the Criminal Courtroom: The Birth and Strange Career of an Emotion, Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Law and Emotion (September 2019).
• Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Not in Our Name (December 2017)
• Michael Radelet, The Incremental Retributive Impact of a Death Sentence Over Life Without Parole, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2016).
• Leo Barille, ​“I Forgive You, but You Must Die: Murder Victim Family Members, the Death Penalty, and Restorative Justice,” Victims and Offenders (2014).
• Corey Burton and Richard Tewksbury, ​“How Families of Murder Victims Feel Following the Execution of Their Loved One’s Murderer: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Reports of Executions from 2006 – 2011,” Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, Vol. 1, Number 1 (2013).
• Marilyn Peterson Armour & Mark S. Umbreit, ​“Assessing the Impact of the Ultimate Penal Sanction on Homicide Survivors: A Two State Comparison,” 96 Marquette Law Review 1 (2012).
• California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Voices from California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (January 2008)
• Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, ​“Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind” (2006).
• Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, ​“Dignity Denied: The Experience of Murder Victims’ Family Members Who Oppose the Death Penalty” (2002).
• Symposium: Pamela Blume Leonard, Michael Mears, John H. Blume, Stephen P. Garvey, Samuel R. Gross, Richard Burr, et al.: ​“Victims and the Death Penalty: Inside and Outside the Courtroom,” 88 Cornell Law Review 257 (2003).
• Vivian Berger, ​“Payne and suf­fer­ing — a per­son­al reflec­tion and a vic­tim-cen­tered cri­tique,” 20 Florida State University Law Review 21 (1992).

Books By and About Victims’ Family Members

• Kimberly Cook, Shattered Justice: Crime Victims’ Experiences with Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations, Rutgers University Press, 2022.
• Bill Pelke, Journey of Hope … From Violence to Healing, Xlibris Corporation, September 2003.
• Susan F. Sharp, Hidden Victims, Rutgers University Press, 2005.
• Judith W. Kay, Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., June 2005.
• James R. Acker and David Reed Karp, Wounds That Do Not Bind: Victim-based Perspectives on the Death Penalty, Carolina Academic Press, 2006.
• Bill Jenkins, What To Do When the Police Leave, 3^rd Edition, In-Sight Books, 2001.
• Rachel King, Don’t Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty, Rutgers Press, 2003.
• Rachel King, Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories, Rutgers University Press, 2005.
• Antoinette Bosco, Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty, Orbis Books, 2001.
• Brian MacQuarrie, The Ride: A Shocking Murder and a Bereaved Father’s Journey from Rage to Redemption, Da Capo Press, 2009.
• Naseem Rakha, The Crying Tree, Broadway Books, 2009.
• Richard Stack, Dead Wrong: Violence, Vengeance, and the Victims of Capital Punishment, Praeger Publishers, 2006.
• Elizabeth Beck, Sarah Britto, and Arlene Andrews, In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families, Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Courtney Vaughn, Living With the Death Penalty, Xlibris Corporation, 2006.
• Jody Lyneé Madeira, Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure, New York University Press, May 2012.
• Jeanne Bishop, One Woman’s Journey After Her Sister’s Murder, Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.

News Articles

• Dakin Adone, ​“The Pittsburgh syn­a­gogue shoot­er faces the death penal­ty despite a pause on fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. Here’s what those who mourn the slain have said about it,” CNN, August 2, 2023.
• Eli Hager, ​“They Agreed to Meet Their Mother’s Killer. Then Tragedy Struck Again.” The Marshall Project, July 21, 2020.
• Richard Pompelio, ​“For sur­vivor’s sake, abol­ish the death penal­ty.” Star Ledger, June 12, 2006.
• Frank Green, ​“Some mur­der vic­tims’ kin reject cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment; oth­ers endorse the sanc­tion.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 22, 2003
• Spiegel, David, ​“Closure? The Execution Was Just the Start” The Washington Post, April 29, 2001.
• Rich, Frank, ​“It’s Closure Mongering Time” New York Times, April 28, 2001 (op-ed).
• Carlson, Margaret, ​“Don’t Give Him the Satisfaction” Time Magazine, April 22, 2001.
• Cohen, Richard, ​“The Wrong Kind of Closure” The Washington Post, April 17, 2001 (op-ed).
• “My Brother’s Guilt Became My Own: I had always watched over him, but he got away from me” By Bill Babbitt as told to Gabrielle Banks, New York Times Magazine, January 14, 2001.
• Briscoe, Ivan, ​“U.S. death penal­ty: vic­tims seize the high ground,” UNESCO Courier, October 2000.

Multimedia

• NPR: STORYCORPS: Recording America ​“Father Finds Peace in Forgiveness”