Carol Heilman, Murder Victim Family Member, Urged House Judiciary
Committee to Support HCR 88 at Its Feb. 26, 2007 Meeting
Good afternoon. My name is Carol Heilman. And | live in Campbellsburg, Ky.
First, | would like to thank Rep. Stein and the other members of this committee for their scrutiny of HCR 88. | want to
express my special thanks to Rep. Tom Burch who filed this important piece of legislation. | am here today as a member
of the extended family of a murder victim, my brother-in-law's wife. The views | share are my own and not necessarily
those of other family members.
Our world was turned upside down when my sister-in-law was reported missing Oct. 12, 1983. Her abandoned car at
the end of their driveway held clear signs of a struggle. The first one to realize her
absence was her 11-year-old son. Evidence led to another home where the person,
who was later convicted, was found with physical evidence that led to his arrest. It
was he who would give the police enough information to find her body on an isolated
county back road. Her body had been so mutilated that it had to be identified by one
of her husband's brothers. Her husband was recovering from surgery in Louisville; a
teen-age daughter who was awaiting surgery and her mother's presence in still an-
other hospital could only speculate why Mom was not there. Later she would learn
why from two uncles, one of whom is my husband. An older daughter was away at
college and would be brought home to face the devastating news. Only the son and
his mom were at home at the time of the abduction which preceded the murder. The
son, asleep upstairs, heard nothing. We were left to surmise that she left the house
either because she had received a call that their cattle had broken through a fence
and were on the highway or because she feared for the life of her son. My husband
was left with deep regrets that she had not called him for help. It is my assumption
that she did not have time.
Months later the suspect received what we thought was a fair trial because the physi-
cal evidence was compelling. He was convicted and given a death sentence in March
1984. There seemed to be great jubilation among those in the courtroom that night
because my sister-in-law, her family and the family of her husband were all greatly loved throughout their community and
county. In my heart | did not share that jubilation. Instead | felt a great emptiness. It did not matter to me what happened
to the convicted killer; my sister-in-law, my children's beloved aunt, would never return to her family, not to her husband,
not to their three children, and not to the rest of us who loved her so much.
All of her family, extended and immediate, were touched deeply by these events and each tried to cope in the way he
or she knew best.
But four years later, the wounds that had begun to heal would be ripped open again when the Kentucky Supreme
Court reversed the decisions of the first trial because of prosecutorial misconduct and granted her killer a second trial.
Three more years passed before there was a new trial. The jurors in the second trial which was held in Jefferson County,
not the home county, arrived at the same decision as did the jurors in the first trial. The defendant is guilty and should be
put to death. You can only imagine the turmoil for the family while awaiting the second trial, yet we had to live it.
Five more years passed. In December 1996, Gov. Paul Patton signed a death warrant for her killer and put the wheels
of execution in motion. Whether you were for or against the death penalty it was a deeply emotional experience that re-
opened, once again, the wounds of any healing that may have occurred. The execution never occurred. A 60-day stay of
execution was granted by the Kentucky Supreme Court. On the day that the stay expired, his lawyers filed an appeal on
his behalf.
Tragically, that is the same year her children would lose their father who never recovered from the murder and the
events which followed. He had poured his energy into caring for his children, attending hearings and the trials, and help-
ing to form an advocacy group for victims’ families. But the bitterness generated by the circumstances that stole his wife
and partner of 23 years took its toll, in my opinion, on his physical and mental health. The cause of his death was a heart.
attack.
Now we fast forward to February 2007, when we learn that U.S. District Judge Jennifer B. Coffman has vacated the
death sentence and that he should get a new sentencing hearing with indications that still another appeal may be filed.
Again wounds reopen that you have tried so hard to heal, memories flood your mind that you wish could be filed away,
and you must listen to talk within the community as they relive what happened nearly 24 years ago.
Difficult as it may be for me, my chief concern is for the three children, now adults, who have lived under this shadow
most of their lives. All three are the successful adults their parents wanted them to be and each has shown great resil-
ience. The youngest learned about this latest twist of events while serving in Alaska, his most recent U.S. Army deploy-
ment. How much longer will they be required to live with this uncertainty?
Admittedly, | am not a proponent of the death penalty for religious/moral reasons. But the facts which | have just
shared should show that the death penalty as applied in Kentucky needs reexamination. A family who has lost a loved
one does not deserve to endure a life sentence of the emotional/mental turmoil that our justice system provides by hold-
ing on to the death sentence as punishment for violent killers. | believe this proposed study can help find a way to hold
those who kill accountable and punish them severely without putting those directly affected by these crimes through
years of waiting for a sentence to be carried out. I've often thought that if her killer had been sentenced to life without
parole, the sentence would have begun in 1984 and | would not feel the need to be here speaking about this today.
Thank you so much for listening and please support HCR 88.
