Dylann Roof sentenced to death, despite some victim’s family members opposing the sentence.
They’re not the first to oppose capital punishment for loved one’s killer
Nine people slain. In a black church. By an avowed white supremacist. Who wanted to start a race war.
Yet there are at least two family members who does not want to see Dylann Roof die by lethal injection for perpetrating the 2015 Emanuel AME Church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina.
Esther Lance conceded she was “angry” and at first said she wanted him to die for killing her mother Ethel. Then reconsidered, saying, “My mom wouldn’t have wanted that.”
Esther’s sister, Sharon Risher, too, was conflicted, she said she had not forgiven Roof and she would not protest if he was sentenced to death.
But whatever Roof’s sentence, she stands opposed to capital punishment, she wrote.
Though support for the death penalty has dropped from 80% to 60% over the last two decades, this sort of magnanimity, especially from those so closely touched by violence, may seem strange, but it’s not unheard of.
