Issues

Victims’ Families

Murder victims’ families hold a variety of views on the death penalty. Studies suggest the death penalty does not bring closure and interferes with their healing process.

Overview 
 

Tragically, every cap­i­tal mur­der case involves at least one deceased vic­tim. Vindication for vic­tims and clo­sure for vic­tims’ fam­i­lies are often held out as pri­ma­ry rea­sons for sup­port­ing the death penal­ty. However, many peo­ple in this cir­cum­stance believe that anoth­er killing would not bring clo­sure and that the death penal­ty is a dis­ser­vice to victims.

The fam­i­lies and asso­ciates of the vic­tims (some­times called cov­ic­tims”) can play a key role in how a case pro­ceeds in the courts. The pros­e­cu­tion may con­sult with the fam­i­lies on whether to seek the death penal­ty or to accept a plea to a less­er sen­tence. If death is pur­sued, fam­i­ly mem­bers may be asked to tes­ti­fy at the sen­tenc­ing phase to describe the impact the mur­der has had on their own lives. Victims’ fam­i­lies often speak at leg­isla­tive hear­ings on the death penal­ty, both in favor of and in oppo­si­tion to a death penalty statute.

Statistically, the race of the vic­tim can be rel­e­vant to the issues of arbi­trary appli­ca­tion and racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in the death penal­ty. Studies have shown that death cas­es dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly involve white vic­tims in the underlying murder.

The Issue 
 

Victims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers who oppose the death penal­ty are some­times ignored if the pros­e­cu­tion is intent on seek­ing the most extreme pun­ish­ment. In addi­tion, vic­tim impact state­ments at sen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings can be so dra­mat­ic and pow­er­ful as to over­whelm any mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors pre­sent­ed about the defendant’s life history.

What DPI Offers 
 

DPI keeps track of the race and gen­der of all vic­tims in cas­es where there has been an exe­cu­tion. The voic­es of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies are high­light­ed as offer­ing an impor­tant and unique per­spec­tive on the death penalty.

News & Developments


News

May 07, 2025

Victims’ Families Remain Divided on Federal Death Penalty

Recent atten­tion on the fed­er­al death penal­ty is high­light­ing the diverse opin­ions of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones to vio­lence. Like Americans from all walks of life, vic­tims’ fam­i­lies hold a diverse set of views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, shaped by their indi­vid­ual faith, polit­i­cal views, and per­son­al reac­tion to being impact­ed by crime. Some sup­port the death penal­ty, and oth­ers oppose it. Some vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers are part of organizations…

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News

Jan 27, 2025

Federal Appeals Court Allows Arizona to Limit Victim Contact

On January 23, 2025, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lift­ed an injunc­tion enjoin­ing the enforce­ment of an Arizona statute, Victim Contact Limits, which pro­hibits crim­i­nal defense teams from con­tact­ing crime vic­tims and their fam­i­ly mem­bers direct­ly. The restric­tions are found in Arizona’s Victim Rights Implementation Act (Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13- 4433(B)) and also apply to death penal­ty cas­es. The deci­sion means that pris­on­ers and their lawyers may no longer engage directly…

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News

Dec 17, 2024

Indiana’s First Execution in 15 Years Raises Serious Constitutional Concerns

If Joseph Corcoran had been sen­tenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the bor­der in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s like­ly that a court would have barred his exe­cu­tion. Ohio law pre­vents a per­son with a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schiz­o­phre­nia, schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der, bipo­lar dis­or­der, or delu­sion­al dis­or­der, from being put to death. Mr. Corcoran, who has a long his­to­ry of paranoid…

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News

Nov 26, 2024

Article of Interest: 9/​11 Victim’s Daughter Writes Why She Supports Plea Deals for Perpetrators

In a Washington Post op-ed, Chanel Shum, a mem­ber of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, explains her sup­port of plea agree­ments that would end decades of legal uncer­tain­ty and sen­tence three of the accused 9/​11 defen­dants to life with­out parole. Ms. Shum was start­ing preschool when her father, See Wong Shum, was killed in the September 11 terrorist…

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