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88 Cornell L. Rev. 486 (2002-2003)
What They Say at the End: Capital Victims' Families and the Press

handle is hein.journals/clqv88 and id is 500 raw text is: WHAT THEY SAY AT THE END: CAPITAL VICTIMS' FAMILIES AND THE PRESS Samuel R. Grosst & DanielJ. Mathesontt INTRODUCTION ................................................... 486 I. EXECUTIONS .............................................. 489 A . C losure ............................................. 490 B. Justice and Vengeance .............................. 494 C. Com passion ........................................ 497 D. Clemency and Intrafamilial Conflict ................ 498 E. Intrafam ilial Killings ................................ 500 F. Apology and Forgiveness ........................... 501 II. EXONERATIONS ............................................ 505 A. Position on the Defendant's Innocence ............. 507 B. Identifying the Real Killer .......................... 510 C. Trust in Local Law Enforcement .................... 511 C O NCLUSIO N ................................................... 514 INTRODUCTION Perhaps the most common complaint by American crime victims and their families is that they are ignored-by the police, by the prose- cutors, by the courts and by the press. However true that may be for capital cases in general, there is at least one consistent exception: the great majority of newspaper accounts of executions include at least some description of the reactions of the victims' families and of any surviving victims. It seems to have become an item on the checklist, part of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of execution sto- ries. When no family members are available, or they refuse to speak, that fact is usually noted as well. Execution stories are hardly a reliable source of information about the effects on victims' families of murders and executions-and all that happens in between. We only have such reports in the com- paratively few capital cases that end in execution, and not for all of t Thomas G. and Mabel A. Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School. The authors thank Michael Groebe, Kristy Lewis, Aimee Mangan, Yarmela Pav- lovic, Katherine Taylor, Judith VanHoose and Laura Varela for their help in locating the news stories on which this Article is based. This research was supported by the Cook funds of the University of Michigan Law School. tt B.A., Case Western Reserve University, 1998; candidate forJ.D., University of Michi- gan Law School, 2004.

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