When the United States recently executed its 200th person since the re-introduction of the death penalty in 1976, many people believed that some form of vengeance had been fulfilled, and that the victim’s family and friends would somehow feel “better,” knowing the killer was now dead.

There is, however, a group of people who believe that “an eye for an eye” does not heal the hurt of losing a relation to murder. Bill Pelke, founding Board Member of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation (MVFR) and AIUSA’s State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for Indiana, is one of them.

Pelke, whose grandmother was murdered by a fifteen-year old high school student in Gary, Indiana in 1985, led a successful international campaign to overturn the death sentence on the killer, Paula Cooper. Cooper is now serving a 60-year prison term.

Pelke’s most recent undertaking is the Journey of Hope, one of the largest death penalty abolition events ever. The journey was a two-week tour of Indiana and other Midwestern cities to spread MVFR’s message of compassion and reconciliation. MVFR consists of family members of murder victims who oppose capital punishment.

In the planning for two years, the tour started on June 5 with a march and rally at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, home of the state’s death row, and went on to visit 18 communities in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. Participants met with politicians, religious congregations, and others influential in forming death penalty policy. Randall Dale Adams, who featured in the film “The Thin Blue Line,” and other former death row inmates, Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., family members of murder victims and of death row inmates, as well as hundreds of death penalty abolitionist, joined the Journey, either at rallies or for the entire march.

At various stops, including the high school were Paula Cooper was a ninth grader at the time of the murder, participants planted a tree as a symbol of life and hope. They also lobbied for legislation to repeal the death penalty in Indiana, which has 55 people on death row. The state’s most recent execution was in 1985.

AIUSA’s Mid-West Regional Office was one of many non-profit and religious organizations involved in the Journey of Hope. For more information on MVFR, contact:

MVFR, 2093 Willowcreek Road, Portage, Indiana 46368, Telephone: 219-763-2170

“An Eye for an Eye” does not ease the hurt of losing a relation to murder.

AMNESTY ACTION SUMMER 1993