Cynthia Portaro, whose son, Michael (pic­tured), was killed in 2011, stood before a Nevada court­room on February 23 and asked pros­e­cu­tors to stop seek­ing the death penal­ty for the man con­vict­ed of her son’s mur­der. Prosecutors agreed to the request and said they would ask the judge to sen­tence Brandon Hill to life with­out parole. Portaro said, ​“I per­son­al­ly didn’t want to see anoth­er per­son die. I got what I want­ed — an apol­o­gy from Brandon. I felt a sense of relief that there is no hatred, ani­mos­i­ty, anger.” Joseph Abood, Hill’s defense attor­ney, said, ​“I’ve nev­er seen any­thing like it. … I’m just hap­py that the heal­ing for every­body can start today. … He’s matured a lot since this killing, and I’m glad he’s final­ly able to rec­og­nize that he made a grave error and to know that he needs to apol­o­gize.” In the years since her son’s death, Portaro has start­ed a sup­port group to help oth­ers through the loss of loved ones. ​“I just help oth­er fam­i­lies through trau­ma, give them hope, give them tools, guid­ance, com­fort, love, sup­port, know­ing that if they can see me being able to do it, they can do it, too,” Portaro said. ​“It helps me to help others.”

(D. Ferrara, ​“Mother of slain man asks pros­e­cu­tors to drop death penal­ty,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 23, 2015; K. Castro, ​“Murder vic­tim’s moth­er spares con­vict­ed killer’s life,” KLAS-TV, February 23, 2015; pho­to: Barry Wong). See Victims and New Voices.

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