The laws broken by felons are laws established by society in the form of local, state or federal laws. The penalties for various offenses are also provided for in the legislation for the specific purpose of providing guidance to juries or judges in the sentencing phase of the process. That is done in order to provide for consistency in sentencing for like offenses. To permit the victim(s) to have any meaningful say in the sentencing of felons would result in wildly unequal and unfair sentences for similar crimes against society.

Often the state's attorneys will seek the input from the victim or victim's family in planning the prosecution. As an example, I was given the final say in whether the State would enter into a plea bargain with my Mother's murderer. Initially I was willing to consider a plea bargain, but I rejected the idea when it became clear that the defendant refused to admit his guilt and intended to use every strategy and ruse in the book, legal or illegal, in order to either avoid conviction or lessen his sentence. He did not earn my forgiveness in the context of the criminal justice process and so it was withdrawn.

But that did not alter my willingness to forgive him in a human or religious sense. Our family did forgive in that regard. But I must say that our forgiveness recognized that the continued refusal of the murderer to admit his guilt and seek God's forgiveness and redemption would still result in a more horrible eternal penalty than any that could be prescribed by worldly courts. We could forgive but still have the knowledge and confidence that the eternal destination of the murderer's soul would remain in God's hands, not ours or the State's.