KENTUCKY
COALITION to
ABOLISH the
DEATH
PENALTY
P.O. Box 3092 ¢ Louisville, KY 40201-3092 ¢ 502.636.1330 «
staff@kcadp.org * www.kcadp.org
From: Rev. Patrick Delahanty
Contact: 502.494.3298
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kentucky Family Members of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death
Penalty in New Booklet
The Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has published a booklet
featuring nine family members of murder victims who oppose the death
penalty.
“We wanted legislators, and others, to know that not all family members
support the death penalty,” said Rev. Patrick Delahanty, who chairs the
coalition. “It has become common to argue that this punishment is needed
for the survivors.”
These nine persons dispel that myth in the reflections they shared.
Kathryn Gaines, a resident of Louisville, “believes every life has value,”
including the life of the one who robbed her grandson of life. “You cannot
bring a life back by taking away another life,” she said. “It hurts a whole
family.”
Alfred DiSalvo was shot and killed in 1973, leaving behind a wife, five
children, his parents and his sister, Nancy Rowles of northern Kentucky. His
death did not change her mind about capital punishment which she always
found abhorrent. Instead, it caused her to reflect, “If I'm suffering, if I’m in
pain, | feel that pain. But I’m not going to be consoled if someone else feels
the same pain.”
The booklet was mailed to Kentucky’s state legislators late last week with a
letter from Delahanty. He pointed out that that these family survivors are not
a group of persons afraid to punish the guilty. Instead, they want to see
perpetrators punished severely and held accountable for their deadly
actions. Yet, they steadfastly oppose execution.
Ben Griffith of Frankfort also described how the “system really uses” the
surviving family members. Not every member of his family opposed death
for his brother’s murderer, though his parents did. “The prosecution team
was their best friend” during the first half of the trial, Griffith said. But, when
Don’t Kill For Us———_______
Working together for 25 Years to End the Death Penalty
it came to the sentencing phase his parents asked the judge not to seek
death. Thereafter, the prosecution team treated the parents “as their worst
enemy,” he added.
Interested persons can soon download a copy of the booklet from the KCADP
website. Video statements by some of those featured in the booklet, along
with others, are available online at http://www.youtube.com/user/KCADP.
Don’t Kill For Us———_______
Working together for 25 Years to End the Death Penalty
