Entries tagged with “Victims”
Victims' Families
,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 with victims and their…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Federal Death Penalty
,May 30, 2023
Victims’ Families are Divided Over Death Penalty as Bowers Trial Begins
On May 25, 2023, 12 death-qualified jurors and six alternates were selected in the federal capital trial of Robert Bowers, who is charged with killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. Prosecutors struck all the Black, Hispanic, and Jewish venire members. As testimony begins on May 30, some victims’ family members have expressed support for capital punishment, while others have objected. Seven of the nine families who lost a relative expressed support for the death penalty in a…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Dec 08, 2022
BOOKS: “Shattered Justice: Crime Victims’ Experiences with Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations”
In Shattered Justice: Crime Victims’ Experiences with Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations, released in August 2022, University of North Carolina-Wilmington sociology and criminology professor Kimberly Cook explores how crime victims and their family members experience and process the trauma associated with the crime itself, the legal process, and the exoneration of the person they once believed to be the perpetrator. Through direct interviews with twenty-one victims of fifteen different…
Issues
Oct 27, 2022
With Federal Ruling Awaited, California Prisoner’s Autobiography Selected for Oprah’s Book Club
With a federal court ruling on his innocence claims considered imminent, Oprah Winfrey has designated the autobiography of California death-row prisoner Jarvis Jay Masters, That Bird Has Wings, as the September 2022 selection for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. Masters, who has converted to Buddhism and become a talented author and podcast host in the years since his controversial conviction and death sentence for the 1985 murder of corrections officer Sergeant Hal Burchfield, filed his habeas…
Issues
Oct 04, 2022
New Study Finds Significant Race-of-Victim Disparities in St. Louis County Death Sentencing
A study of more than 400 death-eligible murder cases in St. Louis County, Missouri over a 27-year period has found significant racial disparities in the county’s administration of the death penalty based upon the race of the victim. An expert report by University of North Carolina political scientist Frank R. Baumgartner released on September 20, 2022 found that the likelihood that a death sentence would be imposed in St. Louis County was 3.5 times greater if the victim was white, as compared…
Research
Sep 14, 2022
BOOKS: “Geometrical Justice: The Death Penalty in America”
The outcome of a capital prosecution can be predicted based upon the relative social status of the victim, the defendant, and the jurors, applying a sociology concept known as the geometrical theory of law, according to the authors of a new book, Geometrical Justice: The Death Penalty in America. In their new book, released in the Summer of 2022, University of Denver criminology and sociology professor Scott Phillips and University of Georgia sociologist Mark Cooney apply the concept of…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Federal Death Penalty
,Sep 07, 2022
Family Members of Buffalo Mass Shooting Want Focus on Preventing Racial Violence, Not Death Penalty
As federal prosecutors consider what punishment to seek against the accused gunman in the May 2022 mass shooting at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, survivors and family members of victims of the shooting are concerned that pursuing the death penalty will further spread the racial hatred that fueled the massacre and divert attention from meaningful action to combat white supremacist violence. In interviews with ABC News aired September 1, 2022, Wayne Jones (pictured) and Garnell Whitfield Jr.
Issues
Victims' Families
,Aug 22, 2022
Fort Worth D.A. Urges Reversal of Death Sentence, Saying Trial Prosecutor ‘Blatantly Lied’ to Jury that Victim’s Family Wanted Death Penalty
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) to vacate Paul Storey’s death sentence, saying that his trial prosecutor “blatantly lied” to his jury that the victim’s family wanted the death penalty and subsequently committed perjury in state post-conviction proceedings to cover up that lie. In an extraordinary filing on August 17, 2022 shortly after being granted permission to reenter the case to “set the record straight with respect to the…
Mar 22, 2022
Bungled Resentencing of Wyoming’s Only Active Death Penalty Case Revictimizes Victim’s Family
March 25, 2022 will mark the end of the only death penalty case in Wyoming — or at least the family of Lisa Marie Kimmell hopes it will. The family traveled from Colorado and Arizona to offer in-person victim-impact statements at the January 21, 2022 sentencing hearing where Dale Wayne Eaton (pictured), who had been Wyoming’s only death-row prisoner, was scheduled to be resentenced to life. But as they waited in a Casper courtroom for the proceeding to start, Eaton was nowhere to be found. The…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Oct 27, 2021
Three Years After Attack on Synagogue, Status of Trials in Tree of Life Killings Remains Unclear
Three years after the religiously-motivated attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, the status of the state and federal prosecutions in the case remains unsettled. As the three Jewish congregations who worship at the synagogue marked the anniversary of the October 27, 2018 attack that took the lives of eleven congregants, no trial date is in sight and the prospect of a capital trial that many in the tightly-knit community oppose continues to delay healing. Lawyers for the accused…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Religion
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 08, 2021
Jewish Congregation Renews Request for Department of Justice to Drop Death Penalty in Tree of Life Synagogue Killings
A Jewish congregation whose members were among the eleven people killed by a white supremacist in an attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 has renewed its request for the Department of Justice to drop the death penalty against the accused gunman. In a June 24, 2021 letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Bruce Herschlag, the President of Congregation Dor Hadash, urged the Justice Department to “abandon its quest for the death penalty” against Robert Bowers, who…
Issues
Sep 21, 2020
Study Finds Defendants Accused of Killing White Women Are 3 Times More Likely to be Sentenced to Death in Texas
A study of 40 years of Texas death sentences has found that the likelihood that a defendant accused of a death-eligible murder will be sentenced to death is three times greater if the case involves a white female victim. The study, A Systematic Lottery: The Texas Death Penalty, 1976 to 2016, by Scott Phillips (pictured, left) and Trent Steidley (pictured, right), University of Denver professors in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, compared two groups of Texas murder defendants…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Upcoming Executions
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 16, 2020
With Litigation Pending in U.S. Supreme Court, Federal Government Issues Four Death Warrants
With a petition for review pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the legality and constitutionality of the federal execution protocol, U.S. Attorney General William Barr on June 15, 2020 set execution dates for four federal death-row prisoners, including three who are involved in the pending case. The warrants scheduled three executions over a five-day period in July and a fourth execution in late August. No federal executions have been carried out since 2003, and the five execution dates…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Apr 09, 2020
Victim’s Mother Joins Fight to Free “Likely Innocent” Death-Row Prisoner Walter Ogrod, Who Has Symptoms of Coronavirus
Saying she wanted justice for her murdered four-year-old daughter, not “a closed case with an innocent person in jail,” Sharon Fahy has joined with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and defense lawyers in the fight to immediately free Walter Ogrod (pictured) from Pennsylvania’s death row. On April 8, 2020, Fahy submitted an affidavit and a brief supporting the parties’ efforts to persuade Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Shelley Robins New to address uncontested innocence…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Oct 07, 2019
Texas Court Reimposes Death Sentence in Case Where Prosecutor Lied to Jury that the Victim’s Family Wanted the Death Penalty
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has reinstated the death sentence of Paul Storey (pictured), after a Tarrant County judge had reduced his sentence to life because a prosecutor had lied at trial about the victim’s family’s views on the death penalty. In a divided opinion issued October 2, 2019, the court did not address the merits of Storey’s claim that his death sentence should be overturned because the prosecution had presented false evidence and argument to the jury, instead ruling that…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Aug 28, 2019
Colorado Taxpayers Paid DA’s Office $1.6 Million for Unsuccessfully Pursuing Death Penalty Against Wishes of Victim’s Family
A more than $1.6 million price tag for prosecuting a Colorado death-penalty case that the victim’s family opposed and that resulted in a life sentence has caused some Coloradans to question whether capital prosecutions are worth the cost. On August 14, 2019, Miguel Contreras-Perez (pictured) was sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to the murder of a correctional officer and the attempted murder of another officer. The sentence came seven years after the murder and after Colorado…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Aug 20, 2019
Jewish Congregations Ask Attorney General Not to Seek Death Penalty in Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
Leaders from two of the three congregations affected by the October 27, 2018 shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue (pictured) in Pittsburgh are asking the federal government not to seek a death sentence for the accused white supremacist murderer. Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation and President Donna Coufal of Dor Hadash Congregation wrote letters to Attorney General William Barr, requesting that Robert Bowers, charged with killing 11 Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh, receive a…
Issues
New Voices
,Apr 25, 2018
Powerful New Documentaries Explore Death-Penalty Issues
Three powerful new documentaries that explore the modern death penalty in the United States are set to premiere this April. Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis and Julius Tennon are executive producers of The Last Defense, a new documentary series premiering for the first time at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival on April 27. The seven-episode documentary series exposes flaws in the U.S. justice system through the personal narratives of death row prisoners Darlie Routier and Julius Jones, both whom…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Jan 10, 2018
Murder Victims’ Family Members Speak of Moving Forward, Without the Death Penalty
Family members of murder victims share no single, uniform response to the death penalty, but two recent publications illustrate that a growing number of these families are now advocating against capital punishment. In From Death Into Life, a feature article in the January 8, 2018 print edition of the Jesuit magazine America, Lisa Murtha profiles the stories of how several prominent victim-advocates against the death penalty came to hold those views. And in a recently released compilation of…
Issues
Oct 30, 2017
STUDY: In Oklahoma, Race and Gender of Victim Significantly Affect Death Penalty
A new study of more than two decades of murders in Oklahoma has found that defendants charged with killing a white woman have odds of being sentenced to death in the Sooner State that are nearly ten times greater than if they had been charged with killing a man who is a racial minority. The study, published in the Fall 2017 issue of the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law’s Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, examined more than 4,600 Oklahoma homicide cases over a 23-year…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 24, 2017
Texas Murder Victims’ Parents Seek Death Sentence Commutation for Paul Storey
Judy and Glenn Cherry (pictured), the parents of Jonas Cherry, have asked Texas state and local officials not to execute Paul Storey, the man convicted of killing their son. The state has scheduled Storey’s execution for April 12. In a letter to Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson, Gov. Greg Abbott, state District Judge Robb Catalano, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Cherrys ask state officials to commute Storey’s sentence to life without parole. They write, “Paul…
Issues
New Voices
,Mar 23, 2017
Florida Black Caucus, Victim’s Parents Urge Governor to Rescind Order Removing Prosecutor For Not Seeking Death Penalty
The Florida Legislative Black Caucus has joined more than 100 lawyers and legal experts and the parents of murder victim Sade Dixon in urging Governor Rick Scott to rescind his order removing Orange-Osceola County State Attorney Aramis Ayala (pictured) from a high-profile double murder case in which she decided to not seek the death penalty. The other victim in the case, Lt. Debra Clayton, was an Orlando police officer. Governor Scott did not speak with Dixon’s family before issuing an order…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Dec 31, 2016
NEW VOICES: Regretting Execution, Murder Victim’s Family Urges Governor to Commute Missouri’s Death Row
When Missouri executed Jeff Ferguson in 2014 for the rape and murder of Kelli Hall, her father said the Hall family “believed the myth that Ferguson’s execution would close our emotional wounds.” At that time, Jim Hall told reporters “It’s over, thank God.” But, he now says, it wasn’t. In an op-ed in the Columbia Daily Tribune, Mr. Hall writes that his family has “come to deeply regret [Ferguson’s] execution” and appeals to Governor Jay Nixon to commute the death sentences of the 25 men…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Apr 05, 2016
Victim’s Cousin in Oklahoma Death Penalty Case Speaks of “Awful” Guilt Upon Learning Defendants Were Actually Innocent
After Debbie Carter was raped and murdered in Ada, Oklahoma in 1982, police and prosecutors told her cousin, Christy Sheppard (pictured) that Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were guilty of the crime. In 1988, Williamson was convicted and sentenced to death; Fritz received a life sentence. Eleven years later, the pair were exonerated when DNA testing excluded them as perpetrators and pointed to another man who had once been a suspect. Sheppard, now a criminal justice counselor and victim…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 24, 2016
Mother of Murder Victim: “The Death Penalty Would Inflict Additional Pain on Us”
Duval County, Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 2013 murder of Shelby Farah (pictured), over the objections of Ms. Farah’s family. After unsuccessful attempts to persuade prosecutors to non-capitally resolve the case, Darlene Farah, Ms. Farah’s mother, publicly expressed her views in a recent column in TIME. Farah said, “I do not want my family to go through the years of trials and appeals that come with death-penalty cases.” Instead, she wants her family to be able to…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 25, 2016
VICTIMS: Murder Victim’s Daughter Says “Broken” Death Penalty Doesn’t Bring Closure and is “A Waste”
Dawn Mancarella, whose mother, Joyce Masury, was murdered 20 years ago, called the death penalty “a waste of energy and money [that] doesn’t bring justice or closure.” Sharing her views on the death penalty in a column for Connecticut’s Register Citizen, Mancarella expressed support for the Connecticut Supreme Court’s 2015 decision declaring the death penalty “incompatible with contemporary standards of decency in Connecticut.” “It’s disappointing to see that the court is re-visiting this…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 12, 2013
NEW VOICES: Father of Slain Corrections Officer Reverses Course on Death Penalty
In a recent op-ed, the father of slain Colorado corrections officer Eric Autobee (pictured) explained why he no longer supported the death penalty and is working for its repeal. Writing in the Pueblo Chieftain, Bob Autobee, himself a veteran corrections officer, said the pursuit of the death penalty in his son’s case caused an “unspeakable emotional toll” on his family. He wrote, “Given what I know now, I can no longer support Colorado’s broken death penalty system. What’s more, I will work to…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 29, 2012
NEW VOICES: Victims’ Family Members Voice Concerns About Death Penalty
A recent op-ed in the Litchfield (Connecticut) News highlights concerns about the death penalty as expressed by murder victims’ families. Mary Healy and Jane Caron are social work professionals who also experienced a murder in their families. In their recent op-ed, they stated that Connecticut’s death penalty does not sufficiently care for the needs of victims: “The problem with the death penalty is that it maintains a focus on the murderer when the focus rightly belongs with the people the…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Aug 26, 2008
NEW VOICES: Victim’s Brother Says Execution left him with “horror and emptiness”
Ronald Carlson wanted vengeance when his sister was murdered in 1983 in Texas. But when he witnessed the execution in 1998 of the person who committed the murder he changed his mind. In a recent op-ed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Carlson said he had no opinion on capital punishment before his sister’s death and remembers feeling hatred and “would have killed those responsible with my own hands if given the opportunity.” But he later discovered that, “Watching the execution left me with…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 13, 2008
NEW VOICES: Murder Victims’ Families Testify in Maryland on the Death Penalty
Family members of murder victims testified before the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6 about the painful toll the death penalty has taken on their lives, stating that the resources spent on seeking death sentences could be better used elsewhere. “I’ve watched too many families go through this to make me believe the system will ever work,” said Kathy Garcia, whose nephew was murdered 20 years ago. She continued, “The death penalty divides families at the very time they need each…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 25, 2008
NEW VOICES: Faith in Texas Criminal Justice System Shaken after Exonerations
Two recent articles in the Dallas Morning News detail the lives of those affected by the wrongful imprisonment of Christopher Ochoa and Richard Danziger in Texas. For some, their faith in the criminal justice system has been shattered. Twelve years after being sentenced to life in prison for a 1988 rape and murder, Ochoa and Danziger were exonerated by DNA evidence. At the time of his arrest, Ochoa, after 15 hours of interrogation, gave a false confession to the police, who fed him facts and…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 22, 2008
NEW VOICES: Mother of Murder Victim Testifies at California Death Penalty Hearing
At a hearing of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice held in Los Angeles, the mother of a murder victim testified about why she believed the death penalty does not serve victims’ needs. Aba Gayle’s daughter, Catherine Blount, was a teenager when she was murdered in 1980 by Douglas Mickey. At first, Gayle told the Commission, “The district attorney assured me that the execution of the man responsible for Catherine’s murder would help me heal, and for many years I…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Feb 11, 2008
VICTIMS: NPR Features Story of a Father Who Forgave His Daughter’s Murderer
National Public Radio (NPR) recently featured a segment in its StoryCorps series in which a father describes how he came to forgive the man who murdered his daughter. Patricia Nuckles was murdered by Ivan Simpson in 2001 when she caught him robbing her home. Though devastated by his daughter’s murder, Hector Black wanted to learn more about his daughter’s killer. He learned that Simpson was born in a mental hospital to a woman who later attempted to drown him and his siblings. Simpson and his…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 29, 2008
NEW VOICES: Judge Calls Death Penalty “an outrageous way to penalize victims”
Maryland Judge Joseph P. Manck sought to lessen the pain and frustration to the victims’ family by sentencing a defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty. In choosing a life sentence for Brandon Morris for the murder of correctional officer Jeffrey Wroten, Judge Manck noted that appeals in death penalty cases can stretch on for years. He cited one case that has been going on for 25 years and said that victims’ families often must sit through…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Nov 28, 2007
NEW VOICES: Father of Murder Victim Urges New Jersey Legislature to Abandon the Death Penalty
In a recent op-ed in the New Jersey Daily Record, Jim O’Brien detailed his experiences with the legal system as the father of a murder victim. His daughter Deidre was murdered in 1982, and the capital trials and appeals for the man convicted of the crime lasted another 8 years. O’Brien stated, “I’ve lived through the state’s process of trying to kill [a murderer], and I can say without hesitation that it is not worth the anguish that it puts survivors through….” Because of the “horrendous toll”…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Aug 15, 2007
Victim’s Family Members Seek Closure Through Life Sentence
Nearly two decades after the 1988 robbery and murder of James Scanlon, his family now says that a sentence of life without parole for his killer — Ronald Rompilla — will end years of emotional strain resulting from the death penalty and will help them to start the healing process. “It’s time to start remembering my dad for the good person he was and not always affiliating it with Ronald Rompilla and the death penalty. … (I)t was time. I didn’t think going after it again would be good for us as…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 16, 2007
Victims and Law Enforcement Support Kentucky Death Penalty Review
Legislation to establish a commission to examine Kentucky’s death penalty and report its findings to the General Assembly has gained support from former law enforcement officials and victims’ family members. The bill, proposed by Rep. Tom Burch, would require the task force to review whether capital punishment deters crime, is applied fairly, and is still acceptable to the public. It would mark the first time in four decades that the state has examined its death penalty laws. During a recent…
Research
New Voices
,Jan 24, 2007
NEW RESOURCES: “Living With the Death Penalty”
“Living With the Death Penalty” is a new book that examines the impact of executions on correctional officers, offenders, chaplains, attorneys, and victims’ family members. In this book, author Courtney Vaughn, a rape victim and an Educational Leadership and Policy Studies professor at the University of Oklahoma, offers first-person accounts of what it is like to experience the death penalty from a variety of perspectives. She explores the sacrifice, alienation, and resiliency that are common…
Research
New Voices
,Jan 08, 2007
NEW VOICES: Victims’ Advocates, Prosecutors Caution Against Expansion of Texas Death Penalty
Victims’ advocates and prosecutors are urging Texas legislators to exclude the death penalty from new legislation designed to toughen penalties for repeat child molesters. Those opposed to the measure fear that threatening death sentences for sex offenders could lead to fewer reported cases of sex crimes and might even give incentive to offenders to kill their victims to prevent the child from testifying in court. Annette Burrhus-Clay, executive director of the Texas Association Against Sexual…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Dec 21, 2006
Death Penalty Will Not Be Sought for Killing at Jewish Federation
Following an announcement that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty for Naveed Haq, who is accused of killing one woman and wounding five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, two of Haq’s victims said they supported the decision to seek a life sentence. “The death penalty most likely promulgates further violence and revenge,” said Cheryl Stumbo, who was wounded in the attack. King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng classified it as “one of the most serious crimes that has ever…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Nov 14, 2006
NEW VOICES: Life Without Parole Offers Prosecutors, Jurors, and Victims an Acceptable Alternative to the Death Penalty
Prosecutors in Utah have stated that the sentencing option of life without parole has been very helpful in giving jurors and family members of victims a viable alternative to the death penalty. Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom noted that life without parole is often a better option to present to jurors: “It’s a tool for juries as well as prosecutors and defense attorneys, too,” Yocom said. “It’s an alternative to avoid asking a jury of 12 people to make that decision,” to impose…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Nov 07, 2006
NEW VOICES: “Death penalty isn’t the justice I seek”
Bonita Spikes’ husband was murdered 12 years ago. She now works to end the death penalty in Maryland. She recently wrote about her perspective on capital punishment in the Baltimore Sun. She stated, in part: I know that my late husband, Michael, who was an innocent bystander in a 1994 convenience store shooting in New York City, would be proud of me because he, too, opposed the death penalty. … [M]ost relatives of murder victims drop their guard when I tell them that I experienced the…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Sep 25, 2006
NEW VOICES: NJ Assemblyman Changes Position on Death Penalty — Legislator Also Lost A Family Member
State Assemblyman Nelson T. Albano of Cape May, New Jersey, announced at a forum on the death penalty that he has changed his mind and now opposes capital punishment. Albano said that his change of heart came after reading a book about Kirk Bloodsworth, the 1st death-row inmate in the United States to be exonerated by DNA evidence. The book led him to the insight into that the capital-punishment system is flawed and should be put on hold. “I think we owe it to the people in our prisons who are…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Federal Death Penalty
,Apr 10, 2006
NEW VOICES: Mother of September 11 Victim Opposes Death Penalty for Moussaoui
Alice Hoagland’s son, Mark Bingham (pictured), was killed on September 11 as he joined with fellow United Airlines passengers to ground a plane that may have been headed toward the White House. Hoagland is urging a life sentence for Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces the death penalty for his role in the terrorist events of that day. In an interview with The Advocate, Hoagland noted that sparing Moussaoui’s life would honor “a reverence for all life” and that it would prevent some from viewing him…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 27, 2006
NEW VOICES: Victims Do Not Necessarily Want Revenge
Victims of violence and terror are not necessarily well served by a system that promises “closure” in the form of the death penalty, according to a recent Washington Post column by Dahlia Lithwick. Among other cases, the author questions the assumptions in the federal government’s case against Zacarias Moussaoui as it relates to the needs of the family members from the September 11th attack: The death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has been touted by the government as a way to bring…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Mar 03, 2006
Death Penalty Not Sought in Three High-Profile Cases
Prosecutors in Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware have all chosen to seek life sentences in three high-profile murder cases. Among other concerns, they noted their wish to bring comfort to victims’ families and to secure the public’s longterm safety. The prosecutors expressed confidence that not seeking the death penalty was the right choice in these cases. Maryland prosecutors announced that they will not seek the death penalty for sniper John Allen Muhammad, who will go on trial in May.
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 25, 2006
NEW VOICES: Victim’s Family Urges Life For Florida Man
After more than two decades of working to spare the life of Florida death row inmate James Floyd, the family of the woman he murdered has succeeded in getting prosecutors to reduce Floyd’s sentence to life in prison for the murder of Annie Bar Anderson. “I did not want him to die, and I didn’t want his family to suffer the murder of their father or their brother or their son. What good is anger and hatred,” said Elizabeth Blair, who took up the family’s effort to spare Floyd’s life after Annie…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 17, 2006
NEW VOICES: Virginia Legislators And Victims Speak Against Death Penalty
Two Virginia lawmakers who have had a family member murdered recently spoke in opposition to the death penalty. During a senate committee hearing on a bill to impose a moratorium on executions, Senators Henry L. Marsh III and Janet D. Howell noted that their opposition to the death penalty was based in their experience of losing a loved one to murder. Howell’s father-in-law was murdered in his home eight years ago. She noted, “Up until then, I was in favor of the death penalty. But when my…
Aug 10, 2004
NEW VOICES: Maryland Families Urge Prosecutor to End Death Penalty Bid
Expressing their desire to end emotionally straining court proceedings, the families of Maryland murder victims Betina “Kristi” Gentry and Cynthia V. Allen recently urged Anne Arundel County’s top prosecutor to end his 3rd attempt to get a death sentence for the man accused of killing the two women 10 years ago. “They’ve been through so much. I can’t look them in the eye and say, ‘Nah, you have to relive it again.’ I can’t do that,” said State’s Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee after agreeing to…
Jul 07, 2004
NEW VOICES: Murder Victims’ Family Members Join Call for North Carolina Death Penalty Moratorium
In a letter to the North Carolina House of Representatives, 21 family members of murder victims voiced their concerns about the state’s error-ridden death penalty system and urged members to pass legislation that would impose a two-year moratorium on executions while a study is conducted. “We are troubled by cases in which inadequate representation or prosecutorial misconduct led to innocent people being sent to our North Carolina Death Row. We are troubled by the ongoing evidence that our…
Feb 09, 2004
NEW VOICES: Victim’s Family Requests Life Sentence For Death Row Inmate
After consulting with the family of the murder victim, Maryland prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty against Kenneth Collins during a recent resentencing hearing. Collins’ death sentence was overturned because of an inadequate defense at his originial trial. Margaret Breeden, the victim’s widow, noted that seeking the death penalty for Collins would result in years of agonizing appeals and that her family is “tired of reliving the memories of his death every time a new hearing is…