[CUADPUpdate] National Crime Victims Week

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

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Greetings All!

First, thanks to the many of you who sent 
personal notes after my last message.  I will 
respond, but they have been running me ragged here so it may be a few days.

Second, I need to make two corrections to my last 
message.  First, in my late night typing I failed 
to proofread before sending, and I failed to 
finish a thought.  Sr. Karen was murdered by a 
parolee living in her halfway house.  Of course, 
if you followed one of the links I gave you got 
the full story.  Second, I saw Bud Welch 
yesterday at the NCADP board of directors meeting 
(we both serve), and he corrected me further.  It 
was Sister Roz who was the crazy driver who 
delivered Bud to Bill McVeigh's house.  It was 
Sister Karen upon whose shoulder and couch Bud 
cried his eyes out after that meeting with Tim 
McVeigh's sister and father.  If you ever get a 
chance to hear Bud tell his whole story, don't 
miss it!  But you can read it if you click on 
"Board of Directors" and scroll down to Bud 
Welch, here:  http://www.murdervictimsfamilies.org/

This week, April 23-29, is National Crime 
Victims’ Rights Week. When public attention is 
focused on this week, we want to make sure that 
the views of all murder victims’ family members 
are recognized – including those people who have 
lost loved ones to murder yet oppose the death 
penalty.  The following document is a joint 
statement from three organizations: Journey of 
Hope
From Violence to Healing, Murder Victims’ 
Families for Human Rights and Murder Victims’ 
Families for Reconciliation.  Please forward 
widely.  And thanks to the National Coalition to 
Abolish the Death Penalty for coordinating this effort.

This would be a good week in particular to make a 
donation to one or all of the abolition 
movement's victims rights organizations.  Here are the web links:

http://www.journeyofhope.org/pages/support.htm

http://www.mvfr.org/Donate.htm

http://www.murdervictimsfamilies.org/


Yours in the Struggle,

--abe

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Justice and Reconciliation:
Respecting the Views of All Crime Victims

Statement on National Crime Victims’ Rights Week 
from the Journey of Hope
From Violence to 
Healing, Murder Victims’ Families for Human 
Rights and Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation

April 19, 2006

Contact:
Bill Pelke, Journey of Hope
From Violence to Healing
(305) 775-5823

Renny Cushing, Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights
(617) 491-9600

Robert Hoelscher, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation
(513) 273-4792

----------

April 23-29 is National Crime Victims’ Rights 
Week – an appropriate time for those of us who 
have lost loved ones to murder to think about the 
twin concepts of justice and law. Justice is a 
concept involving the fair, moral and impartial 
treatment of all persons, regardless of who they 
are or where they come from.  The law is how 
societies put justice into practice; the fit is 
not ideal, and the best societies always work to 
bring the reality of a legal system closer to the ideal of that which is Just.

It is because of these two concepts that many of 
us who have lost loved ones to violent crime have 
come to oppose the death penalty. We support 
absolute and certain punishment for those who 
took our loved ones away. But for us, justice is 
not gained through capital punishment.

Unfortunately, crime victims are often unfairly 
stereotyped in the media and in the public eye as 
all demanding vengeance. Not all who have lost 
loved ones to murder share this view.  We all 
want justice, but not everyone agrees it is 
achieved through an imperfect legal system and by 
taking the life of another person and by creating 
more families who lose a loved one to killing.

When President Reagan proclaimed the first 
National Crime Victims’ Rights Week in 1981, he 
said, “It is time all of us paid greater heed to 
the plight of victims.” That means respecting the 
opinions of all victims – not just those who favor vengeance and executions.

As we reflect during this week, we remember those 
who have lost loved ones to murder. We think of 
the loss of life of the murder victim and the 
loss to that victim’s family and community. All 
who have signed this letter have experienced that 
loss directly. The question, “How would you feel 
if someone in your family were murdered?” is not 
a hypothetical question for us, we live with the answer every day.

For us the answer does not include another 
killing.  More deaths do not bring back our 
family members and more deaths do not make us 
safer. We would like to live in a society that 
demonstrates its concern for victims by devoting 
resources to preventing violence and to addressing the real needs of victims.

We think, too, of the families left behind when 
an execution occurs. Family members of the 
executed are the death penalty’s invisible 
victims.  After an execution, surviving family 
members often feel isolated, and keep silent 
about their experiences because of the shame they 
feel and the pain they have experienced 
throughout the capital punishment process.

As we mark another National Crime Victims’ Rights 
Week, we join with survivors of homicide 
everywhere in seeking not only justice, but also that which is Just.

Bill Pelke
Journey of Hope
From Violence to Healing

Renny Cushing
Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights

Pat Clark
Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation

*****************

SENT BY:
--abe
Abraham J. Bonowitz
<abe at cuadp.org>
800-973-6548
561-371-5204