No One Is an Island: It's Not Just the Wrongfully Convicted Who Suffer

• In Event: Capital Punishment, Wrongful Convictions and the Web of Impact

Abstract

When a person is sentenced to death, often he or she has family and friends that are sentenced as well. These individuals get caught up in a destructive cycle of hope and despair as they struggle to find help proving their loved one is innocent. Unlike normal grief, they must cope with what they see as an inherently unjust system as well as fear and desperation as the process moves inexorably closer to execution. This presentation examines the physical, emotional and spiritual impact of that cycle on those closest to the accused.

Author

• Susan Sharp, University of Oklahoma