Victims' Voices Against Capital Punishment

Jeanne Bishop

"The death penalty is terrible for victims. It pours money down the black hole of staggeringly expensive death penalty cases instead of using those funds to provide much-needed services for victims' families. The death penalty delays justice for victims by dragging legal proceedings out interminably. Worst, it promises that victims can heal by participating in a killing. That's why victims in the State of New Jersey--even those who favored the death penalty in principle--successfully urged replacement of the death penalty with the sentence of life without parole. Life without parole saves money which can be devoted to victims' services. It delivers justice immediately and permanently. And it avoids further bloodshed that could retraumatize victims."

Jeanne Bishop, sister of murder victim Nancy Bishop Langert, Member of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights and Cook County Public Defender

Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins

"Murder victims' family members like mine are standing up in increasingly greater numbers to say that the death penalty is not the solution. It subjects our families to endless years of appeals, where the media focus and resources are expended on the offender, not the victims. And at the long end of the tortuous process, the only thing that is accomplished is another grieving family. Executing the offender does not bring back what we have lost. Life without parole assures us that they will never get out, that society is safe, that they will be punished the most severely, and that we do not become what they are."

Jennifer Bishop - Jenkins, sister of murder victim Nancy Bishop Langert, National Board Member of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights

Catherine Crino

“I had been vocal in my opposition to the death penalty before my sister’s death. On the plane to El Paso to claim her body, I remember thinking, ‘This might change everything.’ But when we went to my sister’s apartment, seeing evidence of her killer’s death splattered all over the walls didn’t make us feel any better. It didn’t give us that sense of ‘closure’ they are always promising murder victims’ families. It just meant that there were two people dead instead of one. I went from a theoretical opposition to capital punishment to the sad realization that it does not do what others promise. That is what changed for me in this experience.”

Catherine Crino’s sister Stephanie was murdered in Texas in 1995 by her boyfriend, who killed himself several days later.

Mary Jane Crow

"It's human nature to be angry, yes, but (Luna) is still… we came from the same maker and yes, he is in a way my brother. He's very lost, he's very hurt, he's very angry, and I'm praying for him. A kill for a kill, blood for blood, is not the right answer, A crime, yes, has been committed. But revenge and justice are two different things."

Mary Jane Crow, sister of Michael Castro, the youngest victim in the Brown's Chicken Massacre