As Maryland prepares for the execution of Steven Oken this week, two Maryland parents whose daughter was murdered six years ago provided a victims’ family perspective on capital punishment in The Washington Post:

“Oken committed the crimes for which he is sentenced to die back in 1987. Anyone who has seen the survivors of victims feels sorrow for the pain they have had to bear as the case has worn on. But the death penalty holds little promise of helping survivors deal with their emotional damage. The victim remains lost to them whether the killer lives or dies.
…
“Our experience suggests that the death penalty in this country is not serving its intended goals. No matter how hard we try to make sure we have the most stringent rules for imposing the death penalty, it is still a process managed by people. Having now met three free men who served nearly 30 years of their collective lives on death row before being exonerated, we are mindful that the rightful application of this sentence is far from perfect.

“One tragedy of the death penalty is that it turns society’s perspective away from the victim and creates an outpouring of support for those who have perpetrated a crime. The meetings now being held in Maryland in search of ways to stop Oken’s execution focus on him, not on his victims.

“We need to deal with violent offenders in a way that takes them out of circulation quickly, secures our safety and helps survivors heal. But it also must be a way that leaves us on higher moral ground than the death penalty does.”

Oken is scheduled to be executed during the week of June 14-18th.

(Op-ed by Sylvester and Vicki Schieber, Washington Post, June 13, 2004) See Victims.