Connecticut's Lichtfield News carries the guest editorial, "Time to eliminate the death penalty?" It's wirtten by Mary Healy, DSW, and Jane Caron, MSW.
We are intimately acquainted with homicide grief, each one of us having lost a cherished family member to murder. But our connection to survivors is also professional, with a doctorate and master’s degree in clinical social work, and more than 30 years each of clinical experience, we have devoted our professional lives to the alleviation of human suffering, trauma, grief and loss.
As both homicide survivors and professionals who help those dealing with grief, we are less concerned with what is deserved by the murderer than we are by what is deserved by the families of murder victims. We believe that justice is only served when the needs of those who have been harmed are met. The problem with the death penalty is that it maintains a focus on the murderer when the focus rightly belongs with the people the murderer has harmed. The misplaced emphasis is evident by the fact that, while crucial victims’ services and crime prevention programs are not funded to their optimal level, the state spends between $4 million to $7 million annually on a death penalty system where the focus is primarily on the murderer.
However, there are many additional costs to victims because of our decision to keep the death penalty on the books. The process a family member goes through in a capital case is not beneficial to mental or emotional health. To start, capital cases can cause additional trauma to homicide victims’ families by making a distinction between those cases “worthy” of capital pursuit, and those not. To someone in the throes of grief, the notion that their loved one’s murder is not the “worst of the worst” is deeply offensive. Given that fewer than 2 percent of all homicides in Connecticut are prosecuted as capital cases, the majority of victims’ families are left to conclude that their loss wasn’t as horrible as someone else’s, not worthy of the attention and condemnation capital cases warrant.
And:
We have devoted our professional lives to caring for people, especially when those people are most in need. Following the murder of a loved one, people are tremendously vulnerable. We understand this on every level. The death penalty is not what victims need. If we are serious about caring for the needs of victims, we will abandon the pretense of the death penalty and work for real solutions.
"Some murder victims' families, opposed to Connecticut's death penalty, plan press conference," is the AP filing via the New Haven Register.
Some Connecticut families of murder victims are planning to publicly call on state legislators to repeal the state’s death penalty.
The family members of murder victims say they will gather at a press conference at the state Capitol next week to urge lawmakers to end capital punishment in Connecticut. The advocates say they plan on presenting the state legislators with a letter signed by over 100 murder victim family members who support the initiative.
The Feb. 29 press conference comes a week after lawmakers agreed to take up death penalty repeal legislation this session.
The legislature’s Judiciary Committee recently voted 23-to15 to raise the bill for discussion.
Earlier coverage from Connecticut begins at the link. Related posts are in the abolition, state legislation, and victims' issues indexes.
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