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Post by gellibee on Jun 18, 2006 2:42:09 GMT -5
JOURNEY OF HOPEJourney of Hope...from Violence to Healing is an organization led by murder victim family members joined by death row family members, family members of the executed, the exonerated, and others with stories to tell, that conducts public education speaking tours and addresses alternatives to the death penalty. Journey Storytellers come from all walks of life and represent the full spectrum and diversity of faith, color and economic situation. They are Real People who know first hand the aftermath of the insanity and horror of murder. They have Real Stories that recount their tragedies, and their struggles to heal as a way of opening dialogue on the death penalty in schools, colleges, churches and other venues. The Journey spotlights Real People with Real Stories. Some choose not to seek revenge, and instead select the path of love and compassion for all of humanity. Some see forgiveness as strength and as a way of healing. Others come by different paths. Listen to the Voices of Experience because all reject the Death Penalty as Bad Public Policy and believe … Yes, America ... There is a Better Way www.journeyofhope.org/pages/index.htm
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Post by gellibee on Jun 18, 2006 2:46:02 GMT -5
Journey of Hope...The Book
by Bill Pelke
Description The savage murder of 78-year-old Bible teacher Ruth Pelke by four teen-age girls was the beginning of Bill Pelke’s Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing. Initially Bill did not object when 15-year old Paula Cooper was sentenced to death for his grandmother’s murder. Through the power of prayer and transformation, he moved from supporting her death sentence, to working to have it overturned, to dedicating his life to the abolition of the death penalty. This is the story of Bill’s journey, the obstacles he overcame, and the amazing, loving, forgiving, committed people he met on the way.
Trade Paperback $19.54
Hardback $29.69
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Post by gellibee on Jun 18, 2006 2:48:18 GMT -5
Don't Kill in Our Names
Price: $29.95 (Excluding: Sales tax)
Subtitle: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out against the Death Penalty Author: Rachel King
Description: Gripping stories of people who have lost a loved one to murder and oppose the death penalty.
Praise for Don't Kill in Our Names
"Particularly disturbing are stories that involve the sentencing to death of retarded convicts and juveniles…The testimony of families of murder victims is key to anti-death penalty campaigners, and these moving accounts might touch readers who are wavering on the issue." -Publishers Weekly
"Rachel King offers us the stories of families who understand the powerful reality that taking another life in the name of justice only perpetuates the tragedy. I encourage others to read these stories to better understand their journey from despair and anger to some level of peace and even forgiveness."-Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking
"Don't Kill in Our Names is a compelling presentation of a relatively unknown truth: some murder victims' families oppose capital punishment because they believe it simply continues the cycle of killing. These important voices contribute to our nation's renewed, growing debate on the death penalty."-U.S. Senator Russell D. Feingold
"Rachel King's book is a powerful statement against the death penalty by those with the most compelling reasons to be for it. Anyone who thinks the death penalty is justified because of the victims should read this book."-U.S. Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott
"Too often, family members who oppose the death penalty are silenced, marginalized, and abandoned, even by the people who are theoretically charged with helping them. Don't Kill in Our Names gives voice to murder victims' family members who are not seeking the 'execution solution' to heal their pain. I highly recommend it, especially for those who care about victims' rights."-Robert "Renny" Cushing, Executive Director, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation
"This book took me on an emotional journey through the lives of people who not only forgave those who murdered their loved ones, but who came to know them as human beings, in many cases through working to save them from the death penalty. Anyone who cares-or thinks he/she cares-about justice should read this book."-Raymond Michalowski, professor of criminal justice, Northern Arizona University
Could you forgive the murderer of your husband? Your mother? Your son?
Families of murder victims are often ardent and very public supporters of the death penalty. But the people whose stories appear in this book have chosen instead to forgive their loved ones' murderers, and many have developed personal relationships with the killers and have even worked to save their lives. They have formed a nationwide group, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation (MVFR), to oppose the death penalty.
MVFR members are often treated as either saints or lunatics, but the truth is that they are neither. They are ordinary people who have responded to an extraordinary and devastating tragedy with courage and faith, choosing reconciliation over retribution, healing over hatred. Believing that the death penalty is a form of social violence that only repeats and perpetuates the violence that claimed their loved ones' lives, they hold out the hope of redemption even for those who have committed the most hideous crimes.
Weaving third-person narrative with wrenching first-hand accounts, King presents the stories of ten MVFR members. Each is a heartrending tale of grief, soul searching, and of the challenge to choose forgiveness instead of revenge. These stories, which King sets in the context of the national discussion over the death penalty debate and restorative versus retributive justice, will appeal not only to those who oppose the death penalty, but also to those who strive to understand how people can forgive the seemingly unforgivable.
Rachel King is a legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington national office where she lobbies on crime policy. She is currently working on a book about the families of death row inmates.
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Post by gellibee on Jun 18, 2006 2:50:10 GMT -5
Capital Consequences
Price: $24.95 (Excluding: Sales tax)
Subtitle: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories Author: Rachel King
Description:
Praise for Capital Consequences
"Mothers everywhere weep for lost sons, and children everywhere long for absent parents, but the families of those on death row suffer without sympathy or comfort. In Capital Consequences, King thoughtfully describes the anguish of these families as an execution date draws near and challenges the belief that creating another saddened and grieving family is a legitimate consequence of the death penalty."-Robin M. Maher, Esq., director, American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project
"There are few, if any, books like the one Ms. King has written. I hope that people will not turn away from the hardness of these accounts, but will take them in and respond accordingly."-Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center
Those who support capital punishment often claim that they do so because it provides justice and closure for the victims' families. In Capital Consequences, attorney Rachel King reminds us that there are other families and other victims who are excluded from the death penalty debate, and who should be considered.
Combining a narrative voice with vivid, passionate, and painful accounts of the families of death row inmates, the book describes how crimes that lead to death sentences also devastate the families of those convicted. These families, King argues, are the unseen victims of capital punishment.
King challenges readers to question the morality of a punishment that victimizes families of the condemned, having a ripple effect, through future generations. She tells the stories of families that have lost life savings supporting an accused loved one, endured intense public scrutiny, been subjected to harassment by the media, and are struggling to live with the inhumane treatment that their loved ones receive on death row. The author also explores the unique nature of the grief that these families suffer. Because their pain tends to attract less attention and empathy than that of the crime victims' families, King shows how it becomes much more desperate and isolating.
On a human level, this book is a powerful reminder that tragic events have tragic consequences that far outreach their immediate victims. At the same time, the accounts illustrate many of the flaws inherent in the judicial system-racial and economic bias, incompetent counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, the execution of juveniles, and wrongful convictions, some of which are only now being overturned as a result of recent advances in DNA technology.
Regardless of which side of the death penalty issue you are on, this book will lead you to pause and consider that all acts-criminal and retributive-have broader human implications than we are sometimes willing to realize.
Rachel King works for the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is the author of Don't Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty.
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