Tough Issues

Today’s excerpt from Margaret Vandiver’s research suggestions – our final excerpt in the series – looks at two particularly tough issues that can arise for victims’ families in capital cases. The first is “Disagreement within Families As to the Desired Sentence.” Margaret Vandiver writes:

Members of the same family often disagree as to the best outcome of the case against their relative’s accused murderer. A related situation arises when a defendant has multiple victims; the various families are likely to have disagreements over punishment. These disagreements raise thorny issues for those who support the right of victims to have determinative input into sentencing. Should one family’s opinion prevail over another’s? How should opinions be weighed within families? Does a mother’s preference outweigh a wife’s? Is a child’s opinion more important than a sibling’s? Researchers should be aware of intrafamilial disagreements over sentencing, which can become a further source of stress, anger, and even estrangement within families.


We have seen the stress that disagreement about the death penalty places on a family, and this is exacerbated when the criminal justice system favors the family members who support the death penalty. In 2003, Lorilei Guillory opposed the death penalty for the man convicted of murdering her 6-year-old son Jeremy. Lorilei’s brother (the victim’s uncle) supported the death penalty, and the district attorney’s office allowed his testimony but sought to bar Lorilei’s. In a statement to the press at that time, Lorilei said, “I resent the fact that because I do not want the death penalty in this case, and wanted the state to accept life without parole, the state has treated me as if I am the enemy and has used my disagreement with the death penalty to divide my family at a time when we need each other to heal. No one can tell another person the right way to heal and the state cannot tell me that the death penalty will heal me.”

Gus and Audrey Lamm faced a similar situation several years ago when they tried to speak at a pardon board hearing regarding the death sentence of Randy Reeves, who had been convicted of murdering Victoria Zessin, Gus’s wife and Audrey’s mother. The Nebraska Pardon Board forbade them from testifying, but allowed a relative who supported the death penalty to present testimony. When the Lamms filed suit to protest this inequitable treatment, they were described in a judge’s ruling as “not victims,” as though opposing the death penalty completely negates one’s relationship to a murdered family member.

Similar kinds of discrimination and emotional pain can exist in the next set of circumstances that Margaret Vandiver describes: “Victim and Offender are Members of the Same Family.” Vandiver writes:

Although most death sentences are imposed upon people convicted of killing strangers or acquaintances, rather than family members, there are cases in which the victim and defendant are members of the same family; a family member’s testimony may even have helped to convict the defendant. The conflicts of loyalty in such situations are perhaps especially strong when victim and offender are related by blood rather than by marriage. Researchers should explore the reactions and sentencing preferences of survivors in various family situations to see if patterns emerge. The reactions of survivors related to both the victim and offender should be compared to reactions of survivors in cases where the murderer and victim were strangers.


A story in our newsletter last year told about two families who faced this situation (when you get to the newsletter, scroll down to page 7) – the Syrianis in North Carolina, who pleaded with the governor to commute the death sentence of their father, who had been convicted of killing their mother, and Marcus Lawrie, who was 7 when his mother was murdered and 14 when his father was executed for that crime. And this story tells about how Felicia Floyd and Chris Kellett begged the state of Georgia not to execute their father for the murder of their mother, and how badly they were treated as a result.