posted on March 19th, 2009
Governor Bill Richardson signed legislation today repealing New Mexico’s death penalty and replacing it with life without parole. I want to thank Governor Richardson, as well as the New Mexico State Legislature, for this brave and correct move.
I am against the death penalty for many reasons, but only one that truly matters. When I was twenty years old, I attended the criminal trial of the two men who murdered my sister. I had no particular sympathy for either of them, either before or after the trial. The audience for the trial was minimal; my family and some family friends, the defendants’ families and presumably some friends, some reporters, the courtroom artist, and that was about it. We sat on the prosecution side, and the families of the defendents sat on the defense side. Almost like a wedding. During the sentencing period, each member of our family delivered an impact statement from the witness stand describing how the loss of my sister had affected us, and how we expected to be affected in the future. Family members of the defendants (at this point, the convicted killers) also gave statements.
Honestly, I was not terribly impressed with most of the family members of the defendants. But when one of their mothers spoke, I could feel her anguish. Sure, she’d made some mistakes, everyone does, but she didn’t raise her son to be a murderer. She was clearly filled with anger, with remorse, with grief, with terror. In the end, both defendants were sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 18 years in prison.
It’s not fair that their mothers can visit them or talk to them or write them letters, when my mother will never visit, talk to, or read a letter written by my sister again. It is not enough; it can never be enough. If executing my sister’s killers would bring her back, I would do it myself. But murder cannot be undone. The death penalty cannot alleviate my grief; it can only create more grievers.
This rant filed under: Political
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