Murder victims' lives no less valued without death penalty
As the sister of a murdered brother, I am outraged that Delaware legislators are trying to bring back Delaware's death penalty.
It is offensive when death penalty supporters claim that the value of the lives of victims like my brother and Correctional Officer Sgt. Floyd is less if the killer isn't executed. My brother's life has value beyond measure even though the death penalty was dropped and the man who murdered him was given life without parole. Sgt. Floyd's life, too, has immense value, regardless of the fate of those who took it.
It was a relief that my family and I no longer had to have the killer and the gruesome details of the murder paraded before us repeatedly in the media and for years of appeals. Life without parole gave us the legal finality we needed to grieve privately and begin to heal. Being able to disengage from the psychological grip of the killer was a necessary part of our healing. Not having an execution in no way diminished our ability to honor my brother's life.
Even before the Delaware Supreme Court decision declared the death penalty unconstitutional, over 40 percent of Delaware death sentences were eventually reduced to life or a period of years, or overturned. Even for murder victims' families who support the death penalty, promising them healing from an execution that likely will never come is cruel and only inflicts more pain.
Kristin Froehlich
Wilmington
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