Voices of the Victims: Capital Punishment and A Declaration of Life

• Published in: The Review of litigation Vol. 27; no. 4; p. 769
• Main Author: Peterson, William R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Austin University of Texas, Austin, School of Law Publications, Inc 01.07.2008
• Subjects: Capital punishment; Clemency; Criminal justice; Criminal sentences; Murders & murder attempts; Reconciliation; Victims of crime; Violent crime
• ISSN: 0734-4015

18 Groups such as Murder Victims' Families For Reconciliation, Inc. respond, with equal authority of experience, that closure does not come through taking another life, and healing begins with forgiveness and reconciliation.19 Even while holding the deepest convictions about capital punishment, those who have not suffered the unimaginable pain from the murder of a family member must wonder, on some level, how actual loss would change their beliefs. In today's America, they cannot honestly claim to support both. 2 .\n152 Executive clemency is unrelated to the process of adjudication and unrelated to the determination of guilt or innocence.153 Justice O'Connor's concurrence requires slightly more-minimal procedural safeguards preventing, for example, decisions to grant clemency based on coin flips.154 Justice Stevens's dissent applies the strictest standards, essentially equal protection and some degree of due process,155 but this still falls far short of the strict aggravation-mitigation framework mandated in sentencing by Gregg.156 These conclusions support the historic conception of presidential clemency-[h]umanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed.