Victims Family Members active against the DP

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some of the stories of people who have found their closure in working against the cycle of violence....

Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins’ sister Nancy Bishop Langert was shot to death along with her husband, Richard Langert, and their unborn child in suburban Chicago in 1990. Their killer was 16 years old at the time and a local politician running for re-election proposed lowering the age of death penalty eligibility in Illinois to 16 to “honor your sister.”<br>
Jennifer vowed to oppose him publicly if her sister’s murder was used as the rationale for this proposal. “Nancy loved children and this is not what she would have wanted,” she says. Since that time she has worked to end the death penalty both in Illinois and nationwide.

She serves on the board of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, is the state president for the Million Mom March /Brady Campaign and volunteers with the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. She was a featured speaker on the steps of the U.S. Capital for the Halt the Assault Million Mom March on Mother’s Day 2004. She has testified before the Illinois Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment and in death penalty clemency hearings before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. She has spoken before state legislative committees and the Chicago City Council on issues of gun violence, crime prevention, and criminal justice reform.

She appeared in the documentary on the death penalty, “Too Flawed To Fix” and was profiled in a Chicago Tribune Magazine cover story. Her story and abolition work are included in the book Don’t Kill In Our Names by Rachel King. Jennifer, who first visited Illinois’ death row in 1994, is on a mercy committee for former death row inmate Renaldo Hudson. She wrote the foreword for the recently published book of prisoners’ essays on personal responsibility and transformation entitled Lockdown Prison Heart.

Jennifer and her sister, Jeanne Bishop, were co-recipients of the Brigid Award given by Concern Worldwide in recognition of their reconciliation work. She has taught high school and college for more than 20 years and has received several outstanding teacher awards. She is the Assistant Principal for Academics at St. Scholastica Academy in Chicago.

Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins Quote:

"Our sister Nancy and her husband Richard were a young couple expecting their first child when they were shot to death in their home. They loved and valued life; our sister was carrying life within her when she died a terrifying and brutal death. Her last act as she was dying was to write a message of love in her blood. We can’t imagine making the death of another human being her memorial."
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"It is past time for being silent about the death penalty. In Texas, we’re executing record numbers each year. Things have gotten so bad because people have all been silent and let things get bad. We are told many times that we are not supposed to forgive – that when people do horrible things to us we should do something just as bad in retribution. Those of us who know better – those of us who know the power of forgiveness – need to speak up. Every chance we get, we need to challenge the mentality that compassion is a weakness. Compassion is the toughest thing of all, but it’s the only thing that works to restore peace in our live."

Carol Byars’ husband, James Hapney, was shot in 1977 by his mother’s next-door neighborhood during an altercation. He died from his wounds eight months later. Carol’s mother-in-law immediately urged family members to get guns and retaliate, but Carol knew even then that she wanted nothing to do with vengeance. "There had been enough bloodshed," she says.

In court, Carol observed the man who was ultimately convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. "I remember thinking he had the face of a baby," she recalls, "and I remember thinking about how he had a mama, and a young wife, and babies of his own. I couldn’t imagine his mother watching her child being put to death, or his children watching their father being put to death. I never wanted that."

Years later, Carol tried to make contact with the man who had killed her husband. "I went to find him to tell him I had forgiven him, " she says, "and I found out he had died. I’m sorry I never had a chance to tell him."

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On December 22, 1986, SueZann Bosler and her father, Rev. Billy Bosler, were attacked in the church parsonage by an intruder. Rev. Bosler was stabbed 24 times. SueZann, in an effort to help him, was herself stabbed in the back and head and left for dead. While lying on the floor pretending to be dead, she heard the intruder ransack the house as she watched her father take his last breath.

As a Brethren minister, Rev. Bosler had been an opponent of capital punishment, and had once told SueZann that if he was ever murdered he would not want his killer to receive the death penalty. On her father's behalf, SueZann worked for 10 1/2 years to spare the life of his murderer, James Bernard Campbell. She voiced her opposition to the death penalty throughout three trials and two sentencings. Her efforts put her at stark odds with Florida prosecutors and judges, who at one point threatened her with contempt of court if she revealed her views to the jury considering Campbell's fate.

SueZann devoted many years to seeking commutation of Campbell's death sentence. On June 13, 1996, her efforts were successful and his sentence was commuted to three consecutive life terms. "Being able to point to him at that moment, and express my forgiveness, was like having a weight lifted from my shoulders," she recalls.

Reprinted with permission from "Not In Our Name: Murder Victims Families Speak Out Against the Death Penalty," a publication of Murder Victims Families For Reconciliation, Barbara Hood & Rachel King, Editors. MVFR

SueZann Bosler Quote:

"My father's favorite hymn was 'Let There Be Peace on Earth, and Let it Begin With Me.! Those of us who work against the death penalty are working for peace."
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The world is not a better place because the State of Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. Even though Karla murdered my only sibling -- my sister, Deborah, who had raised me after our mother died -- I stood with her as one of her witnesses when she was executed. I was there to stand up for the Lord, for the strength of his love. Karla and I had both done a lot of wrong in our lives. We had both turned to drugs to heal our pain; we had both hurt a lot of people. But the love of Jesus Christ transformed us. We were able to forgive ourselves and each other. "I love you Ronnie," was one of the last things Karla said. I still carry that love with me.

Ron Carlson's sister, Deborah Ruth Carlson Davis Thornton, and Jerry Lynn Dean were murdered with a pick ax by Karla Faye Tucker and Daniel Ryan Garrett on June 13, 1983. Both Tucker and Garrett were sentenced to death. Ron originally supported their sentences, telling the prosecutors, "I think they got what they deserved." Ron lost his stepfather and natural father within a year of Deborah's death. "You can't imagine the anger that was in this body," he says now. For many years, Ron treated his pain with alcohol and drugs, until becoming a Christian and turning his life "over to the Lord" in 1990. Ron ultimately forgave Karla and Dan and worked hard to commute their death sentences. Dan died in prison of natural causes in 1993. Despite widespread appeals on her behalf, Karla Faye Tucker was executed on February 3,1998, in Huntsville, Texas. Ron was invited by Karla to witness the execution as one of her representatives. When he did so, he become the first known victim's family member to witness an execution on behalf of the murderer. Ron's decision caused rifts within his family that remain to be healed. But most family members still offer their love and support. And Ron knows he made the right decision. "I drew strength from the Lord, and I knew he was here. God reached out of heaven to hold us in his hands and cradle us with his love and compassion. Karla died with a smile on her face. They took her body, but they didn't kill her spirit."

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"When we moved to Michigan from the East Coast over 30 years ago, we felt proud to live in a state that had never had capital punishment. After Ron's mother was murdered in Ohio, a death penalty state, we felt the same firm opposition to the death penalty. When the case came to be prosecuted, three sons and daughter-in-law independently voiced their support for our position, and we petitioned the county prosecutor not to seek capital punishment.

We have always believed that no human has the right to take another's life. We could never condone such an act. Even Mother's horrible murder could not change that.

In similar situations, so many people seem to focus exclusively on the terrible action of the murderer. But we firmly believe that the fundamental question is how we as a civilized society will act. To kill out of fear, hatred and retribution is to demean us all and ultimately to commit a second act of murder."

In 1991, Ron Callen's mother, Leona Callen, was brutally beaten and murdered in her home in a suburb of Akron, Ohio. With excellent police and prosecutorial work, made possible by a municipality with good tax support and a low crime rate, the murderer was quickly arrested, tried and convicted. He had apparently intended to burglarize Leona Callen's home when she surprised him.

The police department, despite its excellent efforts to resolve the murder, was fully convinced of the value of executing the 28 - year old perpetrator. The Callen family's plea not to invoke the death penalty resulted in sparing the young man's life. In addition, it led to swift justice and the family's quick release from the case. The Callens were spared the years of agonizing over whether the murderer would be executed that families calling for the death penalty often endure. They were able to focus instead on the memory of their mother and grandmother and the legacy of love and caring she exhibited throughout her life.

Reprinted with permission from "Not In Our Name: Murder Victims Families Speak Out Against the Death Penalty," a publication of Murder Victims Families ForReconciliation, Barbara Hood & Rachel King, Editors. MVFR

Forgiveness in the Face of Murder
by Ron Callen

We had a great family Thanksgiving that year. Much of our immediate family could be with us: my wife, Carolyn's mother and sister, our son who lives in Washington and my mother from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Family togetherness, especially at holidays, was a hallmark of our family having been one of the many blessings handed down from our two sets of parents. The celebration occurred in Washington, where I was on loan from my position with the State of Michigan to open and direct a national office.

On Sunday, Mother and Carolyn flew off together on their return trip. They said goodbye at the end of their first leg and returned to their homes, Carolyn to ours in Lansing, MI. Mother called Carolyn the next morning to see if all was well. Not knowing it, of course, that's the last time we ever spoke to her.

On Thursday, I called between flights to my answering machine back in Washington. One, still ringing in my ears after these seven years, was from the Coroner's office of the county Mother lived in. I tried at first to think it might not be such bad news; but Mother was 86, yet in good health. Only after the first rush of emotion did the voices in my head clear and let me realize the obvious; coroners get involved not just in deaths but also in criminal deaths. My dear Mother had been murdered.

She had been struck and killed one night in her home, my childhood home of so many joys for me, for Carolyn and for our children. In fact, after the first blow, which we suspect killed her, her lifeless body was repeatedly beaten. In her second-floor hallway there was left awful evidence of the pummeling. Her body had lain for almost three days before being discovered by a neighbor.

We were consumed with terrible pain especially, of course, from the nature of her death; I was her only child, the burdens of response fell on me. We must deal too with the police - we wanted this murderer caught before he/she attacked anyone else.

Help arrived on both counts. Mother's life of loving and caring for so very many was reflected in the literally hundreds of friends and relatives of hers and our that supported us through those very dark days. Mother's faith also was a support in having conveyed that to us and especially me as I grew into adulthood. And so many of the friends who supported us came from the decades of her acting out her faith. The funeral was a haven of refuge as we tried to focus on Mother's life, not the horror of her death.

The police told us the clues were minimal, sufficient to determine guilt if a suspect were identified, insufficient to identify and capture the murderer. After a month without progress, the City offered a reward which led to identification through an informant. A television bulletin releasing the suspect's name brought him to capture.

Then came contact with the Prosecutor's Office and their question whether we would support, as punishment, the death penalty, an option in Ohio. It didn't take long for us, all of us in our family, to say no. And the Prosecutor, to our great satisfaction, did not pursue it. Via a plea bargain, at the trial the defendant was sentenced to a almost a lifetime in prison, the equivalent of the penalty in Michigan for murder. He would not kill again.

We found so many reasons to abhor the death of this person. As I stated at the trial to the judge, this act of senselessness had devastated two families. The love my mother spread throughout her life would stand in stark opposition to another killing, via an execution. Mother would not be returned to us. I consider it an obscene irony to somehow "trade" the life of my mother for that of another person.

We would maintain our long-standing aversion to executions, coming from our religious belief and reflected in our own teachings in Sunday School. The legacy of the loving person my mother was would be forever enshrined in our pursuit of mercy, rather than of further violence. We finished the legal process in a 15-minute trial; surely, there would have been no plea bargain if the defendant's life were at stake. In contrast, a death penalty conviction involves mandatory review by the Ohio Supreme Court. That could take more than ten years!

But most important to us in our decision was our belief in a God of mercy who loves us all and allows for reconciliation. That lack of hate or a sense of vengeance we experienced from the first moments of our agonizing journey became a fundamental of our life. We came to see the healthiness and the consoling nature of our lack of hate as a gift from God.

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"The emotions that family members experience in losing loved ones to violent crime ran the gamut in my family. I had aunts and uncles who wanted to personally wreak havoc and vengeance on the perpetrators. But my grandmother’s response to the anger and outrage of other family members was that no human being had a right to determine who should live or die. My grandmother was a strong, quiet, deeply religious Black matriarch. Her ultimate belief in people was memorably displayed when the son of the woman who killed my uncle came to her house to play with my cousins. To the shock and horror of other family members, my grandmother welcomed him in. Her loving example helped lay the foundation of my opposition to capital punishment."

Pat Clark’s uncle and cousin Dot were murdered when she was a young girl. She has worked against the death penalty in many capacities over the years and currently serves as Director of the Criminal Justice Program of the American Friends Service Committee.

members.tripod.com/midmo_for/journey/pat.html

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"God commands us that vengeance is His and His alone. We are instructed to love both our friends and our enemies. We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The death of my daughter by murder caused my family a pain that I am unable sometimes to put into words. But the murder of her killer would not heal our pain. When the state kills it does not help the victims. It creates more victims. We as a society must find a way to stop this senseless killing on both sides of the law. Don’t kill for me in the name of justice, because the death penalty is not justice. It is legalized killing."

Anne Coleman’s daughter Frances was shot to death in her car while driving through South Central Los Angeles in 1985. No arrest was ever made for the crime. During the months following the murder, Anne’s youngest son Daniel fought severe anger and depression over his sister’s death, and repeatedly expressed his desire for revenge against her killer. At age 25 -- two years after his sister’s murder -- Daniel died of cardiac arrest after taking antidepressant medications. In Anne’s view, the same bullet killed two of her children. Anne and her friend, Barbara Lewis, founded BECAUSE LOVE ALLOWS COMPASSION, a Delaware support group for murder victims’ families and the families of death row inmates.
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"A man come up to me after my father was murdered and said, "I hope they fry those people. I hope they fry them so you and your family can get some peace." I know that man meant to comfort me, but it was the most horrible thing he could possibly have said.

Before my father's murder I had evolved a set of values that included a respect for life and an opposition to the death penalty. For me to change my beliefs because my father was murdered would only give more power to his killers, for they would then take not only his life but his main legacy to me: the values he instilled.

The same is true for society. If we let murderers turn us to murder, we give them too much power. They succeed in bringing us to their way of thinking and acting, and we become what we say we abhor."

Renny Cushing's father, Robert, was killed by two shotgun blasts fired by a stranger through the family's front screen door in 1988.

"I get sick when death penalty advocates self-righteously prescribe execution to treat the wounds we live with after homicide," Renny says. "Those who hold out an event ---execution--- as the solution to pain have no understanding of healing. Healing is a process, not an event."

A recent two-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Renny sponsored legislation to abolish the death penalty in 1998. He now serves as MVFR's Executive Director.

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"For a long time I hadn't made up my mind about the death penalty. Then my son Michael was found beaten to death. As I grieved for him, it became very clear to me that it is a horrible thing to take a person's life. Now I believe that to cut someone's life off, whether individually or in the name of the state, is a great wrong."

Shirley Dickens lost her son to murder over ten years ago, when he was a young man. His body was found in a local wooded park, and no one was ever arrested for the crime. Shirley explains that after her son's death she "felt a very strong presence that told me not to worry about retribution or justice... to instead put my emotional energy into prevention and let God take care of the rest." As a nurse in a large hospital, Shirley believes in preventive medicine. "I think as a society we have put all our resources and emphasis on the wrong side of crime. We should be doing all we can to have children grow up knowing they're protected, loved, cherished, and wanted. If we did this, we'd have far less crime and far more valuing of each other's lives."

[CCADP]

I have experienced many forms of violence. My uncle was murdered, leaving only memories. I have been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. My brother, who was wrongly convicted of murder, sat on death row for over 20 years before his recent death in prison. I consider the state.s efforts to kill him and act of violence against my entire family. For many years we suffered the anguish of knowing my brother's life could be taken, and we continue to suffer in the knowledge that his life meant so little to the state when it meant so much to us.

When someone is murdered, grieving family members have the comfort of knowing that society condemns the killing. But when someone is sentenced to die or is executed, grieving family members must face a society that not only embraced the killings but shuns them. The pain and loss we feel is dismissed or ignored.

Although I have many reasons to hate and seek vengeance, God has shown me the truth -- that all life is priceless!.

Trevor has spent many years coping with the anger and rage he first felt as an 11 year old boy when he heard a judge exclaim to his brother Jeffery, "You are to be executed by electrocution until you are pronounced dead, dead, dead!" He has taken an active part in MVFR's speaking tours since 1994 and is currently pursuing a career in counseling. Trevor and his wife Robin have two children.

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"Where the death penalty is an option, the victim's family is apt to be drawn into the spirit of vengeance with the promise that an execution will give them 'justice'. This prolongs their grief and pain through the years of court proceedings. We are grateful that Michigan does not have the death penalty, and did not give us a sentence of prolonged grief or hold out a false promise that an execution would make it all better. Holding on to hate and vengeance will not help us heal.

We are thankful that our mother raised us to believe in forgiveness, because if hatred had been added to our burden of pain, loss, and grief after her brutal murder, it would have destroyed us."

Sally and Carol's mother, Bernice O'Connor, was 82 years old when she was raped, beaten, strangled and stabbed to death in her Detroit home. Sally and Carol do not believe the death penalty would have deterred the murder because it was a crime of rage. "Killers either act in passion or they believe they will not be caught," they say. The sisters remember their mother as "always cheerful and positive, seeing and seeking good in everything...the kind of person who brought people together, reconciling differences." Killing her killer, in their view, would desecrate their mother's memory.

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"Victims’ families need time to grieve and support from people who are focused on helping them heal. Nobody – prosecutors or abolitionists – should profess to "help" them if they have an ulterior motive. Too often, literature given to victims by the prosecution promotes the death penalty because that is what the prosecution wants. Families are under a lot of pressure to support the death penalty and are made to feel they aren’t doing enough for their murdered loved one if they want something different. When my uncle was murdered, the focus of most discussions with the prosecutor was how to make sure his killer got executed. Nobody wanted to discuss the alternative of life without parole, which I would have supported. More painfully, nobody really wanted to talk about my uncle and the grief that I felt."

Leigh Eason was 11 when her uncle, Florida State Trooper Ronald Smith, was shot and killed in the line of duty. She remembers her uncle as an "unbelievably good person. I don’t think there was ever a person in need who crossed his path the he didn’t try to do something for." After the murder, Leigh’s family was drawn immediately into focusing more on the killer and his trial than on her uncle and their loss. The experience had horrible effect on family members. Her grandfather committed suicide and her mother suffered a heart attack, both after bouts with severe depression. It took 25 years for Leigh’s mother to say that she was glad the killer had not been executed. "She seems to be finally at peace," Leigh says. "It makes me sad for the other victims’ family members who will never have the chance to get to that point of peace in their lives."

Leigh is a founding member of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, and helps organize the American Friends Service Committee’s program opposing the death penalty.

[CCADP]

Since my arrest and wrongful conviction for the death of my parents, I’ve given the death penalty considerable thought. Death for death is an escalation and continuation of society’s murderous domination of the weak and disenfranchised. If we desire to transcend our murderous past and grow as enlightened and loving beings that we have the potential to be, we must demonstrate forgiveness and compassion to all our members, and recognize that we are all fundamentally one. How one member of society treats another affects everyone. Let us break the chain of violence."

Gary Gauger was sent to Death Row in Illinois for the murder of his elderly parents, Ruth and Morris Gauger, in 1993. Thanks to the hard work of those who believed in his innocence, he was ultimately released and exonerated, and two other men were arrested for the crime. Gary’s sister, Ginger, recalls the enormous stress of his time on Death Row: "I’d dread getting up in the morning and facing a new day," she says, "but I had to because the clock on Gary’s death sentence was ticking. The government was planning the killing of my twin brother in as cold and methodical a manner as Schneider and Miller planned the killing of parents."

[CCADP]

JOURNEY OF HOPE...
from violence to healing™<br>

Art Laffin has been an organizer, writer and speaker in the faith-based
movement for peace and justice for over 20 years. He currently is a member of
the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House of Hospitality in Washington, DC .

Art's brother Paul was associate director of a homeless shelter in Connecticut for
10 years before he was murdered by a mentally ill man in 1999. Art has been
working against the death penalty for many years but even more actively since
his brother's death.

He was arrested as part of the DC-18 for unfurling a banner across the steps of the US Supreme Court in 1997 that said "Stop Executions"

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Cofounder & Board Member
JOURNEY OF HOPE...
from violence to healing™<br>
"Loved ones, wrenched from our lives by violent crime, deserve more beautiful, noble and honorable memorials than pre-meditated, state-sanctioned killings. The death penalty only creates more victims and more grieving families. By becoming that which we deplore -- people who kill people -- we insult the sacred memory of all our precious victims."

MARIETTA JAEGER-LANE
DETROIT, MICHIGAN

PROFILE:

Marietta Jaeger's daughter Susie was abducted at the age of seven during a family camping trip in Montana. For over a year afterwards, the family knew nothing of Susie's whereabouts. Shortly before the one-year anniversary of Susie's disappearance, Marietta stated to the press that she wanted to speak with the person who had taken her child. On the anniversary date, she received a call from a young man who taunted her by asking, "So what do you want to talk to me about?"

During the year following Susie's disappearance, Marietta had struggled to balance her rage against her belief in the need for forgiveness. Her immediate response to the young man was to ask how he was feeling, since his actions must have placed a heavy burden on his soul. Her caring words disarmed him, and he broke down in tears on the phone. He subsequently spoke with Marietta for over an hour, revealing details about himself and the crime that ultimately allowed the FBI to solve the case.

Marietta was to learn that Susie had been killed on a remote Montana ranch a week after she disappeared. Despite her family's tragedy, she remains committed to forgiveness and has been an ardent opponent of the death penalty for the over 25 years since Susie's death.

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"My family has lost several members to unexpected violence. Somehow, we were always able to bury our dead and find a way to keep going. Yet nothing we experienced prepared me for having a son on Death Row, unfairly convicted of capital murder. With the death penalty, you feel such agony knowing that people you trust, people you work with and live next door to, think it’s fine to take the life of your kin. Probably the most hurtful thing was when the victim’s mother refused to talk to me at my son’s trial. Until then, the two of us had been able to share our hurt, pain, and anger. But while in the presence of her prosecutors, she would look straight ahead when I tried to approach her. One of my great hopes is that we can communicate again someday and overcome the wall of hatred that was built between us. I also hope that our communities can learn to accept that killing is a tragedy on all sides. There is never just one set of victims."

Barbara Lewis has lost a niece, nephew, and an uncle to murder. Her son, Robert, is on death row in Delaware for a shooting the he maintains occurred accidentally during a domestic dispute. None of the defense attorneys assigned to represent him ever visited the scene of the crime to investigate his claim. Barbara is a co-founder of BECAUSE LOVE ALLOWS COMPASSION, a Delaware support group for victims’ families and families of Death Row inmates.

[CCADP]

The Mother of a Murdered Student Argues Against Capital Punishment

CINCINNATI—In the early morning hours of May 31, 1999, Brian Muha and Aaron Land, two Franciscan University college students sharing a house in Steubenville, Ohio, were attacked by three armed intruders. Abducted, Brian and Aaron were driven a short distance to Pennsylvania, where they were both brutally shot and killed. Shortly thereafter, the three young men responsible for the killings were caught and tried for their crimes. One was acquitted, the second received a life sentence and third was condemned to die. But the young man on death row has received forgiveness from an unlikely person: Brian Muha’s mother, Rachel. She does not want the impending execution to happen.

The life and death of Brian Muha, as well as his mother’s outrage with the sentence handed to her son’s killer, are featured in the January issue of St. Anthony Messenger in an article entitled "I’d Like to Say: The Death Penalty Dishonors My Murdered Son." In it, Rachel Muha makes a compelling argument against the death penalty on a judicial, practical and spiritual level.

"It is very hard to love someone who has hurt and killed your child," Rachel says. Nevertheless, she rejected hatred for Brian’s killers and has done something that many would find impossible: love the sinner, not the sin. Real forgiveness, she believes, is saying, "I know what you did. You did a horrendous thing. But together, we can become holy."

Although the author concedes that God grants some power to us, she believes that under no circumstances are we entitled to take life. "It is the ultimate act of pride: declaring oneself God," she says. "It is evil." Muha stands firm in her objection to capital punishment, but she also believes that convicted criminals should pay for the crimes they commit and be open to God’s grace and forgiveness.

"Rejection of the death penalty does not mean rejection of justice or punishment. If we do that, we offer them no real hope for an eternal life of happiness," she says.

Although Muha lists several practical reasons for the abolishment of the death penalty, her simplest argument is perhaps the most profound. "Life—all life—is precious. That’s enough for me."
www.journeyofhope.org/a_mother.htm

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"Our society needs to remember the Golden Rule and “do unto others as we would want to be done unto," not "do unto others as they do unto us." Our children are being shown double standards and we have no one to blame but ourselves when they go out and commit homicides. We cannot expect to blatantly kill others and live in hate without the repercussions of those sins upon our nation. Why can’t we act like the humane society we aspire to be and let offenders live in controlled settings instead of killing them? Then we could spend the vast funds we would save on our children, who are suffering in their minds and souls and need our help."

Sue Norton’s elderly parents were killed for $10.00 and an old truck during a robbery on their Oklahoma farm. In the courtroom after the offender received the death sentence, Sue told him that she had never hated anyone in her life, and that she was not going to start with him. After learning about the offender’s life of abuse and rejection, she began visiting with him. His life has been changed thorough her friendship, courage, and faith. Sue has found that real human beings live in prisons, not the animals we are told to expect. " When they are treated with the love of God," she says, "we see that love reflected."

www.fdp.dk/uk/art/art-29.htm
www.catherineblountfdn.org/RealStoriesof%20Forgiveness.htm