Do you think the family of a murder victim should have a say in what punishment is given to the convicted murderer?

They should be allowed (and are in many cases) to make an impact statement to the court before sentencing but they shouldn't have a direct say. Too much emotion.

The words of the family should definitely be heard imo.

They should be allowed to have some say in the punishment dealt out.

Tony Marino wrote:

They should be allowed to have some say in the punishment dealt out.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."

Chris wrote:

Do you think the family of a murder victim should have a say in what punishment is given to the convicted murderer?

I have mixed feelings about that. Actually that's not really true. The fact is, I don't think that is a good idea. On the one hand, it's easy to say that the victim of a crime should have the right to determine the penalty of the perpetrator, but what if you have an ultra-forgiving, ultra-compassionate, Christian victim who believes that "God will judge them appropriately" and that it isn't our place to cast judgement on other people? What then? Do we just let the psychotic murderer go free because the victim decided to forgive them? At the end of the day, the criminal justice system has to to take responsibility for the safetey and security of society at large. By contrast, what if you have a woman who "murders" her husband (who was known to abuse her and her children for years) who she was living in fear of? A desperate crime of passion calculated to save herself and her children from an abusive maniac? Should the husband's family be allowed to demand the death penalty for this "murderer"? Neither one of those examples represent true "justice". In one case you have a dangerous lunatic going free and in another case you have someone else being punished for dealing with a dangerous lunatic. The problem with people taking the law into their own hands is that people are flawed, emotional human beings that succumb to primitive emotions like vengence. Victims are often incapable of rendering a fair and impartial judgement when it comes to crimes against them. I honestly think that our criminal justice system is the best that we can offer and probably the fairest one in the world.