New funding comes from savings from repealing the death penalty
Maryland’s FY15 budget, passed today, includes new funding ($500,000) for support and services to family members of homicide victims. This special designation puts Maryland in the vanguard of states recognizing the needs of this often overlooked population of crime victims.
Companion legislation to require ongoing consideration of murder victims’ families in future budgets is also near final passage after unanimous votes in both the Maryland House and Senate.
These two landmark items come a year after Maryland repealed the death penalty, and were made possible by the savings created by ending the death penalty. Maryland is the second state in the country after Illinois to reallocate savings from death penalty repeal to improve services for victims’ families.
“The nation is undergoing a transformation in the way we respond to violence,” said Shari Silberstein, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA, a national organization that led the coalition pushing for both the funding and last year’s death penalty repeal.
“A common refrain from families of murder victims was that the death penalty was a failure. Today Maryland is leading the nation by putting something positive for victims’ families in its place,” Ms. Silberstein continued.
“Without the death penalty to distract and divide us, it was easy to find common ground. Lawmakers and advocates all agree that victims matter,” said Ms. Silberstein. “We have an obligation as a society to help crime survivors to rebuild their lives. That should be a core goal of our justice system, but it’s a goal that is all too often overlooked. Maryland is taking an important step forward in remedying this.”
Family members of murder victims were leading voices in the campaign to repeal Maryland’s death penalty and use the savings to expand services that would help them in the aftermath of losing a loved one. The funding was amended out of the death penalty repeal bill before final passage last year, but Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley included it in this year’s budget anyway.
Repeal advocates built a coalition with victims’ advocates with divergent views on the death penalty to make the case that Maryland must do more for murder victims’ families. Unanimous votes on the companion legislation in both chambers revealed deeply held common ground between pro- and anti-repeal lawmakers that Maryland must stop leaving these families behind.
Bonnita Spikes, whose husband Michael Spikes was murdered in 1994, was one of the leading advocates calling for death penalty repeal and funding for victims’ services as a member of the broad coalition.
“The police never found the person or persons who killed my husband,” said Ms. Spikes. “I have had to learn to live with this lack of resolution. Our then 13-year-old son, Michael, was so devastated he tried to commit suicide and was hospitalized over the next three years with depression, and still struggles with it today. Over and over, I have met other families in dire need of support and traumatic grief counseling services. Most don’t have any insurance. Nor are they resourceful in knowing who to go and beg for help. For most of these families, the notion of a death sentence in their loved ones’ murders isn’t even a remote thought. They are struggling to hold their households together, to help their families grieve and survive the trauma one day at a time. I am proud to be a Marylander today and to know that my state is making sure these families aren’t left behind.” Ms. Spikes is the Victims’ Advocate and Organizer for Maryland Citizens Against State Executions and a member of Maryland’s State Board of Victim Services. She is also a former organizer with EJUSA and worked closely with EJUSA to advocate for the funding.
