The moth­ers of two teenagers who were killed in California are plead­ing with the District Attorney to refrain from seek­ing the death penal­ty against the man accused of the crimes. Leah Sherzer said her daugh­ter Bodhi (pic­tured) was an adher­ent of the teach­ings of Gandhi, who advo­cat­ed non-vio­lence. She said ​“Bodhi believed that the death penal­ty was wrong and that she would not want her case to be tried as a death penal­ty case.” Pam Thompson, the moth­er of the oth­er teenag­er killed at the same time, said her son did not believe in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and nei­ther does she. She said it does not allow fam­i­lies any real clo­sure. Nevertheless, the D.A. is per­sist­ing in seek­ing a death sen­tence. Sherzer respond­ed, ​“I feel about as pow­er­less as you can get…This is not Bodhi’s wish. I can’t sit back and let her be silent on this… Bodhi stuck to her guns through­out her life. She’s dead, but she’s not silent on this. I am speak­ing for her.” 

(R. Howes, ​“Mothers of slain teens don’t want death penal­ty,” Victorville Daily Press, August 18, 2013). See Victims and New Voices. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Victims.

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