“In 1986 my mother was raped and murdered in her rural home outside Houston. The murderer was eventually convicted and sentenced to death, an outcome I was initially happy with. Eventually I realized killing him was not going to bring her back. I forgave this man for what he had done—not for him, but for me. I realized supporting the death penalty meant that I was actively wishing for another human being to die and I didn’t like the way that made me feel. Hating him and wishing him dead had been controlling my life and keeping me locked up in an anger I didn’t even realize I was living with until I let it go. In 2007, the State of Texas executed him for my mother’s murder. Killing him didn’t bring closure, only sadness that the cycle of violence continued. Death penalty advocates talk about closure but there’s no such thing. No matter how someone dies, you can never have closure because that person will never come back to you. The best any of us can do is slowly, and painfully, deal with that death and put our lives back together. The death penalty holds out a false promise to people of a release from their pain and suffering that only time and grieving can bring.”
-Celeste Dixon
Larned, KS
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