Imagine that your life is perfect, in all its imperfections. You've worked hard, in school, married with children, striving to achieve your goals, a mortgage, that fabulous house and family reunions. Life is full of ups and downs, but it's your family that makes it all worth it. Difficult times are the support of family, laughter and tears, memories of the past and the inspiring future ahead. Now imagine in a blink of an eye, everything is gone, your wife raped and brutally murdered, your child found slaughtered in the backyard, your husband, mother, father or brother or sister was tortured relentlessly for hours or days before you finally die, your life, for all intents and purposes, is gone. There will never be healing, there will never be closure. Everything is lost forever. There is nothing left - nothing except your hope for justice and retaliation. The death penalty for murder is emotionally charged and the subject of great debate. Although homicide survivors are those directly affected by the crime, the themes of the death penalty and life without parole arise exclusively from a societal rather than an individual perspective. Furthermore, attention has focused primarily on the institution of the death penalty and particularly on the offender rather than the victim. As a result, survivors feel ignored, devalued, and rightly worried that there will be no justice for them or their loved ones. Additionally, Peterson and colleagues state: Survivor suffering correlates with the impact of the offender's punishment. The less punishment, the less "closure", the more trauma, increasing lifelong suffering, while the death penalty, although rarely applied, is presented as bringing "closure" and relieving some of the suffering of family members of homicide victims. Ma...... middle of document ...... American National Commission on Human Rights, IACHR, 2007), has not yet been decided by the international commission. Hogan & Emler, Retributive Justice, in THE JUSTICE MOTIVE IN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: ADAPTING TO TIMES OF SHORTAGE AND CHANGE 125, 134-35 (Melvin J. Lerner and Sally C. Lerner eds., 1981). Koch. Edward, I. (born 1924), long active in Democratic politics, was mayor of New York from 1978 to 1989. This essay first appeared in The New Republic on April 15, 1985. Koch, Edward, I., “Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life.” Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life. Internet. April 27, 2014. Loge. Peter, The Healing Process and Trial as Product: Incompatibility, courts and family members of murder victims, in INJURIES THAT DO NOT BIND: VICTIM-BASED PERSPECTIVES ON THE DEATH PENALTY 411, 412 n.5 (James R. Acker & David R. Karp eds..., 2006)