No Research Can Afford to Ignore Them

Today’s excerpt from Margaret Vandiver’s series of research suggestions is about how the death penalty harms families of the executed, which, as many readers know, is a special focus of MVFHR’s, via our No Silence, No Shame project.

I was interested to see Margaret Vandiver call attention to this issue, and also to see that she raises some specific aspects of it, including the point that many families of the executed have experienced a murder in the family as well. We have seen this within the group of No Silence, No Shame participants, but I hadn’t seen a researcher make specific mention of it before. For example, Ida Reid’s cousin was murdered in Virginia in 1991; her brother was executed in 2004. Celia McWee’s daughter was murdered in Florida in 1979; her son was executed in South Carolina in 2004. Jim Fowler’s mother was murdered in Oklahoma in 1986; his son was executed in Oklahoma in 2001.

Here’s the excerpt from Margaret Vandiver:

The Effect of the Death Penalty on Families of the Condemned

Special consideration must be given to one subset of families experiencing violence bereavement: the families of condemned inmates. As a small but growing body of research documents, the death penalty is unrelieved agony for this group. Innocent of any offense, they pay a crushing price. If the death penalty benefits other families of homicide victims, it does so at the expense of these innocent people. No research on the effects of the death penalty on families can afford to ignore them.

Condemned prisoners come from families that are often ethnic or racial minorities and are almost always without financial resources. A substantial number of these families have experienced the murder of a family member themselves, prior to the time that their relative is accused of capital murder. This means they know the trauma of the violent death of a relative and have encountered the criminal justice system as victims’ families. Often their experiences have been very negative: their complaints may include indifference from criminal justice system personnel, lack of information, and a sense of helplessness about influencing the outcome. In addition, they are likely to have experienced the imposition of a relatively light sentence for the offender who killed their family member.

When a relative is charged with a capital crime, these families face the criminal justice system again, but this time as the family of a capital offender. Again their experiences are intensely negative; they are once again likely to suffer from the indifference or even hostility of personnel, from lack of information, and from a feeling of helplessness. They are, however, far more likely to experience the harshness of the criminal justice system, especially if their relative has been accused of murdering a white victim.