THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 30, 1996 TAG: 9601300344
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Pat Bane, whose uncle was murdered nearly 40 years ago, said Monday that she wants legislators to know that not all relatives of murder victims want to see the killer put to death.
Bane, executive director of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, traveled from her home on the Eastern Shore to join about three dozen other death penalty opponents for a Capitol rally.
``You don't heal by taking another life and creating another grieving family,'' Bane told the protesters as lawmakers filed past them en route to the Capitol after morning committee meetings.
While some capital punishment opponents listened to Bane and the other speakers, others lined a walkway between the General Assembly Building and the Capitol and implored passing lawmakers to ``please vote against the death penalty.''
No effort is being made in the legislature to repeal capital punishment, but death penalty opponents said they wanted to make their views known anyway.
``This is a death penalty awareness day,'' said Henry Heller, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Bane said her family experienced the same emotions as any victim's family after her uncle was murdered in the late 1950s.
``I can remember clearly the anger and the grief,'' she said. ``But none of our family ever favored the death penalty.''
She said she has learned that many other victims' relatives feel the same way. ``The last thing they need is more violence,'' she said.
Representatives of several religious groups also spoke against capital punishment. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A legislator, back to camera, walking from the General Assembly
Building to the Capitol Monday, encounters activists of the Campaign
to End the Death Penalty.
KEYWORDS: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT by CNB