Sensible Sentencing Trust Denies Families of Murder Victims a Choice

“Garth McVicar’s paternalistic view that restorative justice has no place in murder cases, shows the Sensible Sentencing Trust is out of touch with the people they profess to help,” said Kim Workman, Executive Director of Rethinking Crime and Punishment. He was commenting on an article in the Sunday Star Times, (25 August) in which Garth McVicar claimed that restorative justice has no place in murder cases.

“While Garth may think he is protecting victims, he is in fact denying families a choice which they should be free to exercise. Prison Fellowship has 13 requests currently on their books from the families of murder victims, and 11 of those were made in the last month. One case involves a double murder, involving two families. Referrals are being made by victims, offenders, reintegration workers and the Parole Board.

The Parole Board is seeing the benefit of post-sentence restorative justice meetings for the families of murder victims,

"The victim should come first--the needs of the victim and how you hold an offender accountable," Kim Workman said. “The fact that the offender is serving a life sentence does nothing to heal a victim. “

“There is a simple choice here. Either you deny families of murder victims the right to to meet the offender, and keep them angry. The alternative is to facilitate a meeting in which the victims can say the things they want to say; things that an offender needs to hear direct from a victim.”

“In the past, justice professionals believed that restorative justice should not be used for violent and serious offences. That has gone by the board. The more serious the offence, the more successful the outcome is likely to be. In Virginia, USA , the state government has just passed legislation allowing the victims of murder victims to meet with offenders awaiting execution on Death Row. “

ENDS

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