Efforts to repeal the death penalty have often focused on the needs of murder victims’ families. For example, in Connecticut, 179 murder victims’ families signed a letter to legislators, which stated,
Our direct experiences with the criminal justice system and struggling with grief have led us all to the same conclusion: Connecticut’s death penalty fails victims’ families…. In Connecticut, the death penalty is a false promise that goes unfulfilled, leaving victims’ families frustrated and angry after years of fighting the legal system. And as the state hangs onto this broken system, it wastes millions of dollars that could go toward much-needed victims’ services.
In Maryland and Illinois, repeal bills redirected funds that would have gone to death penalty cases to provide services to family members of homicide victims.
Aba Gayle, whose daughter was murdered in 1980, testified against the death penalty at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Oregon. She said that those in her situation will never experience closure and executing the killer would not honor her daughter’s life. She told the committee, “Do not tarnish the memory of my beautiful child with another senseless killing.”
For more information and examples, see
- NEW VOICES: Mother of Murder Victim Urges Connecticut Legislators to Repeal Death Penalty
- NEW VOICES: ‘Connecticut’s Death Penalty Hurts Victims’
- NEW VOICES: Murder Victims’ Families Testify in Maryland on the Death Penalty
- Maryland Takes Crucial Step Towards Death Penalty Repeal
- Maryland Governor Will Commute Sentences of Remaining Death Row Inmates
- NEW VOICES: Father of Murder Victim Urges New Jersey Legislature to Abandon the Death Penalty
- NEW VOICES: NJ Assemblyman Changes Position on Death Penalty — Legislator Also Lost A Family Member
- Death Penalty Abolished in New Mexico – Governor Says Repeal Will Make the State Safer
- Illinois Governor Signs Bill Ending Death Penalty, Marking the Fewest States with Capital Punishment Since 1978
- ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE VOTES TO REPEAL THE DEATH PENALTY
- New Hampshire Death Penalty Study Commission — Final Report: Individual Statement of Commissioner Renny Cushing
