Who speaks for the victims of those we execute?

 

All over the country, news stories bemoan and hype the countdown to
execution number 1,000. But where are the stories regarding the
ripple effects of the heinous crimes that these murderers were
executed for committing? Who is counting the victims?

A conservative estimate puts the number of victims of these 1,000
murderers at 1,895. Why do we hear so much about the killers and so
little about the victims and their loved ones who are left behind to
pick up the pieces?

A small sampling of case histories will leave readers shaken.

Melvin and Linda Lorenz and their son Richard were killed by Roger
Stafford. Melvin stopped on a highway near Purcell, Okla., to help
what he thought was a woman whose car had broken down, but instead
was ambushed by Stafford and his brother, using Stafford's wife as
bait. Less than a month after these horrific murders, the trio
killed six employees of a steak house in Oklahoma City.

In 1985, 13-year-old Karen Patterson was shot to death in her bed in
North Charleston, S.C. Her killer was a neighbor who had already
served 10 years of a life sentence for murdering his half-brother
Charles in 1970. Joe Atkins cut the Pattersons' phone lines, then
entered bearing a machete, a sawed-off shotgun, and a pistol.
Karen's parents were chased out of their home by Atkins. Karen's mom
ran to the Atkins home nearby, where Joe then murdered his adopted
father, Benjamin Atkins, 75, who had worked to persuade parole
authorities to release Joe from the life sentence.

When Katy Davis observed three strangers outside her Austin, Texas,
apartment, she walked away. Returning later, she was attacked and
forced to open the door by Charles Rector, on parole for a previous
murder. The men ransacked her apartment, abducted her and took her
to a lake where she was beaten, gang-raped, shot in the head and
repeatedly forced underwater until she drowned.

Ruby Longsworth of Pasadena, Texas, met Jeffrey Barney through a
prison ministry, then helped him get paroled from an auto-theft
sentence. Her kindness was repaid when Barney raped and sodomized
her, then strangled her with a cord. She had made the mistake of
calling Barney "a bum" after she had gotten to know him better.

In 1965, Robert Massie murdered mother of two Mildred Weiss in San
Gabriel, Calif., during a follow-home robbery. Hours before
execution, a stay was issued so Massie could testify against his
accomplice. Massie's sentence was commuted to life when the Supreme
Court halted executions in 1972. Receiving an undeserved second
chance, Massie was paroled, but eight months later robbed and
murdered businessman Boris Naumoff in San Francisco.

Faith Hathaway was 17 when she was murdered by Robert Willie, whose
story became the inspiration for the film Dead Man Walking. Hathaway
had just graduated from high school and was leaving for the Army the
next day. She was abducted after leaving a farewell party in
Mandeville, La. Willie and accomplice Joseph Vaccaro had been on an
8-day murder, robbery and rape spree. Hathaway was raped by both
assailants and stabbed 17 times. She was raped again after she died.

Kenneth Boyd murdered his estranged wife Julie and his
father-in-law, Dillard Curry in Rockingham County, N.C. Julie and
her children were living with Curry. Boyd entered the home and shot
them both in the presence of his own children, then ages 13, 12 and
10.

We must think about the lives that all 1,895 murdered victims
affected. Every one had families, friends, relatives, co-workers,
neighbors. The combined loss is incalculable.

There is no end to horror stories like these. Jurors, who represent
us, hear about horrific crimes and make tough but appropriate
decisions. With a yearly average of 15,000 murders, the fact that we
are reaching 1,000 executions in only a little more than 30 years is
proof that capital punishment has been reserved for the worst of the
worst.

The attention given to the execution of 1,000 murderers is
repugnant, especially when the loudest voices think the death of a
convicted murderer is a tragedy. Yet the deaths and suffering of
countless victims is only an easily-ignored statistic.