Dont kill - in our name - Law - http://maxpages.com/prisonministry/Victims_and

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Hjertelig tak til Ron og familie for dette stærke vidnesbyrd
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Thank you Ron and Family for your strong testimony

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We had a great family Thanksgiving that year. While
all of our immediate family could be with us, we had
my wife, Carolyn's mother and sister, our son who
lives in Washington and my mother from Cuyahoga Falls,
Ohio there. In fact, that gathering occurred in
Washington, where I was on loan from my position with
the State of Michigan to open and direct a national
office.

On Monday morning, Mother and Carolyn flew off on
their common first legs of their return trip. They
said goodby and returned to their homes, Carolyn to
ours in Lansing, MI. Not knowing it, of course, that's
the last time either of us saw her.

On Thursday, on my way home to Carolyn, I called
between flights from the same airport to my answering
machine back in Washington. One, still ringing in my
ears after these seven years, was one from the
Coroner's office of the county Mother lived in. At
such times, I find our minds play tricks to us -
tricks to protect us. I thought at first it might not
be such bad news; but Mother was 86, yet in good
health. Only after the first rush of emotion did the
voices in my head clear and let me realize the
obvious; coroners get involved not only in deaths but
also in criminal deaths. The worst I ever experienced
then became real; dear mother, giver of a thousand,
thousand loves had been murdered.

She had been struck one night in her home, my
childhood home of so many joys for me, for Carolyn and
for our children. In fact, she had not only been
struck, but after the first blow, which we suspect
killed her, her lifeless body was repeatedly stuck.
There was left an awful exhibit of the beating in the
second-floor hallway. Her body had lain for perhaps
three days as we had tried in vain to contact her.

We then were left with a combination of terrible pain
and with a task of dealing with the events of a death;
I was her only child. On top of that, we had the
police investigation to deal with and wanted so very
much to help catch this murderer before he/she
attacked anyone else. Mother's widowed friends
understandably were petrified with fear.

Help arrived on both counts. Mother's life of loving
and caring for so very many was reflected in the
literally hundreds of friends and relatives of hers
and our that supported us through those very dark
days. Perhaps the worst was the first awakening each
morning when the horror would sweep over me anew;
Mother would die again each morning. And so many of
the friends who supported us came from the decades of
acting out her faith. The funeral was a haven of
support to us as we tried to focus on Mother's life,
not the horror of death.

In addition, we dealt with the police, a well-funded
and very respectful organization in this city of
financial ability. The clues were minimal;
sufficient, we were told, to determine guilt if a
suspect were identified but insufficient to identify
the murderer. After a month without progress, the
City offered a reward and that led to the
identification of the murderer through the response of
an informant. A television bulletin with the
suspect's name in it brought him to capture.

Then came contact with the Prosecutor's office and
their question whether we would support, as
punishment, the death penalty. While Michigan has an
historic prohibition against it which we have always
seen as great honor, Ohio has the awful option. It
didn't take long for us, all of us in our family, to
say no. And the Prosecutor, to our satisfaction, did
not pursue it. The defendant became almost a
life-time convict at the trial through a plea bargain;
the trial lasted less than an hour. Now we could
begin to try to heal.

We didn't ask but many gave us their opinion on the
punishment that an intruder of past criminal behavior
(but no violence) should receive for beating an
elderly defenseless woman to death in her home. But
we found so many reasons to abhor the death of the
assailant. As I stated at the trial to the judge,
this act of senselessness had devastated two families
and the love my mother spread throughout her life
would stand in stark opinion as the aversion to
another killing. She would not be returned to us via
an execution and I could only consider it an obscene
irony to somehow "trade" the life of my mother for
that of another person.

There were practical advantages of our firm decision.
We would honor our long-standing aversion to
executions, coming from our religious training and
reflected even in our teachings in Sunday School. The
legacy of the loving person my mother was would be
forever enshrined in our pursuit of mercy.
Furthermore, we were freed of the entire legal process
in a 15-minute trial and we could instantly begin our
celebration of her life while allowing the horror of
her death to recede. In contrast, a death penalty
case involves mandatory review by the Ohio Supreme
Court and that could take more than ten years!

But most important to us in our decision was our
belief in a God of mercy who allows for remorse and
for reconciliation. Stories of the Crucifixion, the
forgiveness replete in the pages of the New Testament
and prayed for in the Lord's Prayer by people of faith
everywhere became real in ways that we never had
experienced. And the lack of hate or a sense of
vengeance we experienced from the first moments of our
agonizing journey became a fundamental of our life,
under divine guidance especially by a caring pastor in
Washington and his wife. She came into our life,
amazingly, or is it not, this person who had suffered
the murder of her mother! We came to see the
healthiness and the consoling nature of our lack of
hate as a gift from God, the exact words of the
minister's wife. As with all of us, we experience
losses, both great and small; we can be healed, but
with scars to arrive at being new persons. And I now
know the great love of God played out for me was the
love of my Mother for us and for so many. I believe
she forgives her assailant as we do also. Our life
goes on with a freedom, a deeper faith and a new sense
of purpose.

Ron Callen
501 McPherson Avenue
Lansing, MI
(517) 372-6088
USA

E-mail: callenrc@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Sat Apr 7, 2001 3:01pm EDT