Taltarzac introduced the issue of forgiveness. That's an extremely important factor, but I left it unmentioned because I believe it has more to do with the personal response of victim to criminal than having anything to do with the criminal justice system.

In the case of our family, we very quickly forgave the man who beat and stomped our 85-year old Mother to death and then attempted to rape her while she lay mortally injured. I describe the crime with some hesitation, but it needs to be known in order to provide context for what I'm about to say about forgiveness.

To the person, our family quickly forgave the murderer and prayed that he would seek God's forgiveness and redemption for his crime. Why did we react that way? I can think of no reason other than because that's the way we were taught in Church as children. Jesus forgave his murderers from the cross and it seemed that's we had to do even in our time of grief. We knew that the murderer would face whatever penalty the Illinois courts would deem correct. But we also knew that if he did not confess his sins and seek God's forgiveness he would face an eternal penalty far worse than anything a judge or jury might consider. We prayed then and we pray now that he will seek God's forgiveness from his cell in prison. If he does, his sin can be forgiven and he can spend eternity in Heaven. If not, he will face the eternal agony of hell.

Having participated in the Illinois State Attorney's Victim's Assistance Program, I can tell you that those lessons we learned as children helped us deal with our loss far better than those who couldn't rid themselves of hate and malevolence against those that caused them to be victims.

But again, I firmly believe that forgiveness by the victim(s) and the criminal justice process are issues that may parallel one another but are not and should not be related.