This is from the Christian Science Monitor from Thursday 21 June.

Life imprisonment, not death penalty, her answer

Jennifer Bishop teaches in high-school programs for gifted students, but she and her sister, Jeanne, a lawyer, have a second mission --honoring the memory of their sister, Nancy. In 1990, Nancy, her husband, and their unborn child were murdered in Winnetka, Ill., by a teenager from a wealthy family - a good student and athlete who had run for student council president and was being recruited by a top Ivy League university. "He went out one night," she says, "to pick somebody to kill because the idea seemed thrilling to him." They have since sought to honor her life by taking action "against the culture of violence that led to her death." Ms. Bishop has come to forgive the young man, who is serving three life sentences without parole. One of her efforts is working to change attitudes on the death penalty as president of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. "My sister's last act was to write a message of love in her own blood," Bishop says, "and I'm not going to second-guess the power and sacredness of that message." "We need to be about the business of loving, of trying to solve our problems, and make society a less violent place," she adds. "Capital punishment is a red herring distracting us from the real work, and it perpetuates the very thing it proposes to stop." Bishop believes that life imprisonment gives the killer time to think about his act and come to terms with it, although the criminal-justice system encourages denial as long as legal remedies remain. She would like to see reforms that move society toward a "restorative" or "transformative justice" system, where victim-offender mediation plays a role. Now, though, she's speaking out on the death penalty, and hopes the rethinking going on in the US will change the climate. "We are often dismissed by prosecutors, police, attorneys general, and state legislative task forces," she says. "I've testified before commissions where I was either not allowed to speak or given less time and treated disrespectfully." Those victims who cry and curse and demand retribution are praised, she adds, while those who choose forgiveness as a healthier way are often marginalized.

There is another article here, but you have to go there before Wednesday or it costs $1.50. (If you want the text after that, PM me and I will email it to you. I would have posted it last night but I only just saw it.)