I think people have been brain washed on this issue. It is not up to me to forgive my child’s murderer, it is up to my child who the crime was committed against.
Yes, I am the mother of a Murdered Child. 25 yrs ago, not a day goes by I don’t miss him, he was just 16, mentally and physically a 12 year old. Ambushed on his way home from school, just a few hundred yards from our home, over the RR tracks hill. By a sociopath who wanted the jollies to see what it felt like to kill. I fought 6 parole hearings to keep the monster in prison for the far less plea bargained sentence of Murder 1 to Murder 2, median time range of 20 yrs. Including the time he spent in jail prior to the rotten plea deal, I eked out 14.5 yrs of those 20. I was relentless.
As for Niki, my other 2 sons played with her brothers. She was a sweet good Natured little girl, so trusting. Her mom has had 1 nervous break down, and is near the edge of another.
And it chaps my hide we victims have to pay taxes to keep these prisoners in luxury glamor slammers and pay for them to be fed, clothed, medical and educated.
Murder in Memphis, Deborah Groseclose
http://truecrimebookreviews.com/2011/06/murder-in-memphis-dorris-porch-rebecca-easley-deborah-william-groseclose/ This creep hired men to murder his young wife. Let them into the house, while he slipped out with the kids. She was Raped, stabbed, beatened, strangled until she passed out. Stuffed into the trunk of her car, which was then relocated down town, where she is still alive, she COOKED TO DEATH in the 100 + summer temps of Memphis. A anti-death penalty federal judge and 2 state supreme court judges kept blocking the use of the DP. They finally were retried, found guilty again, and given Life WITH parole. There is 1 sick sister left to fight the parole hearings.
The Gruesome Story of a Murdered Tennessee Couple You May Have Never Heard – But That You Will Never Forget
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/13/the-gruesome-story-of-a-murdered-tennessee-couple-you-may-have-never-heard-about-but-that-you-will-never-forget/#
I once talked to an old man whose son had been murdered and he forgave the murderer and visited him in prison, even treating him like a son. I asked him “How do you forgive someone who did something like that?”
He said “You don’t. Only God can forgive. You just have to say it. God will take it from the lips to the heart.”
I pray for your peace. I can’t imagine what it is like. And I have to say it would be hard for me to even WANT to forgive.