Susan Bandes, Illinois Fellow and Emeritus Centennial Distinguished Professor of Law at DePaul University, has published an article entitled “The Death Penalty and the Misleading Concept of ‘Closure'” for The Crime Report. In the article, Bandes explains that the argument for the importance of providing “closure” to the families of murder victims is unfairly used to justify the death sentence. She argues that this rationale rose to popularity beginning in the 1980’s, and came to prominence as other rationales for capital punishment–such as the “deterrence” rationale and “retributive” rational–lost popularity. Bandes explainst that the argument of “closure” is not supported by solid evidence, and moreover arose as a “creature of popular culture, the media, victims’ advocacy groups, and the legal system”.
Read the article here.