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It does not matter how many people have been freed from death row based on new evidence or how much states and counties spend trying to carry out capital punishment. For the families and friends of the victims, you can not put a price tag on the sense of justice, and closure, that comes with a death sentence being carried out, survivors say. In Topeka, Kansas recently, relatives of murder victims pleaded with Kansas lawmakers not to abolish the state's death penalty, saying that the penalty should not be abandoned over concerns about what it costs the state. "You cannot put a price tag on my sister's life," Jennifer Sanderholm told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"That is ultimately what you willdo if you abolish the death penalty." According to a report in the Wichita Eagle, Justin Thurber raped, sodomized and murdered 19-year-old Jodi Sanderholm of Arkansas City in January 2007. In March 2009, he was sentenced to die by lethal injection by a Cowley County judge.
Thurber obviously feared the death penalty. The night before his trial, he tried to plea bargain to take capital punishment off the table, Jennifer Sanderholm told lawmakers, her voice wracked with emotion. "He was scared and he didn't want to die," she said, surrounded by her mother Cindy and father Brian who also testified before the committee.
The parents of Heather Muller and Brad Heyka also testified against eliminating capital punishment. The two were raped and murdered in 2000 by the Carr brothers, along with two of their friends. "Heather was murdered by Jonathan and Reginald Carr, Dec. 15, 2000," said Lois Muller, Heather's mother. "Words can't begin to put an understanding to the impact that sentence has had on our lives."
Muller urged lawmakers to consider the potential consequences of eliminating capital punishment. "By repealing the death penalty in Kansas, you will be placing the lives of others in jeopardy," she said. The testimony from victims' families came as the state senate considered two proposals, Senate Bill 208 and Senate Bill 375, that would abolish Kansas' death penalty.
Those who support doing away with the death penalty say the cases cost millions and that there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime. Senate Bill 375 would eliminate the death penalty for crimes committed on or after July 1 and create the crime of aggravated murder, which would come with an automatic sentence of life without parole.
It would not affect the 10 people now on death row. Senate Bill 208, which was debated in 2009 but sent back to committee, would eliminate the death penalty sentence altogether.
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Although I supported it and still do in theory, I was not all that concerned with the death penalty prior to being appointed to the commission. Since that service and New Jersey's subsequent repeal of the death penalty in 2007, I follow with interest when the issue is up for debate around the country. As a police executive, I feel my perspective may be of interest to readers of American Police Beat, in particular in response to your recent article about the death penalty repeal bill in Kansas.
I did not go into the study thinking I would vote to end the death penalty, but with each hearing, it became clearer that New Jersey's death penalty wasn't working and was actually doing far more harm than good.
I have no sympathy for murderers. My sympathy is with the families of
murder victims. It was those very family members who helped change my mind during the course of the hearings.
I had no idea how much families suffer, facing years of capital appeals and reversals. Even in states that carry out executions, the process takes years and reversals are many. And, in capital cases, there is more
attention paid to the murderer and less to the victim. I was struck by the testimony of murder victim family members who still support the death
penalty in theory, but urged us to recommend repeal because they understood from experience that the process only increases their pain and suffering.
I have come to the conclusion that if I were killed in the line of duty, I
still would not want the death penalty sought for my killers. This is not
because murderers don't deserve it, but because I do not want my family to
have to go through what I now understand the system to be.
Again, I don't oppose the death penalty in theory. However, I have learned that a fair, accurate and effective system does not exist. It does not make sense to keep reaching for the impossible when the alternative of life in prison without possibility of parole both ensures public safety and puts victim's families first.
Also, as a police chief, I am not alone in recognizing the death penalty as an ineffective crime fighting tool. A recent national poll of police chiefs found agreement among us that the death penalty ranks at the bottom of the list of things that protect society from murderers. People can read the report at this link: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.or...tFinal.pdf
James P. Abbott
Chief of Police
West Orange Police Department
West Orange, NJ