TCADP | Victims Outreach | Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Victims Outreach

TCADP works in partnership with Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation on a high-level campaign in Texas to reach out to and engage murder victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty. MVFR is a national organization composed of family members of victims of both homicide and executions who oppose the death penalty in all cases. TCADP works closely with MVFR staff Chris Castillo (learn more about Chris in Victim’s Voices below). Chris serves as the Victims’ Outreach Coordinator with Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation. He is based in Beaumont, Texas and will be reaching out to family members throughout the state. Chris can be contacted at ccastillo@mvfr.org.

TCADP also works with Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights and the Journey of Hope… From Violence to Healing.

A Survivor’s Story

Jan Brown ignored the ringing phone as she walked into her house after a long day of work on May 12, 1987. It had been her ex-husband. When she returned his call, he told her that their 9 1/2-year-old daughter Kandy was missing and “police suspect foul play.”

While speaking to Kandy’s father, Jan said she wanted to drive right over to his house in Bryan where their daughter was living. But her ex-husband relayed that the police said she had to stay at home in case Kandy called her. “She never called,” Jan said. Adding to Jan’s anguish, she was later considered a prime suspect in her child’s disappearance, since she was the non-custodial parent. “However, if we ever find her body, we will know that you had nothing to do with it,” authorities told her.

On the day Kandy was first missing, neighbors had seen her getting off her school bus and talking to a man who was at their house. As it turned out, she had been kidnapped and murdered by him.

It took two weeks for Kandy’s body to be found. The smart little girl who had loved everyone was found with her hands tied behind her back. She had been shot in the head at close range. The FBI called Jan with this information ten minutes before she would have seen it on the news. “This was literally the first and only kindness I had been accorded by them. However there had been and would continue to be too many victim-unfriendly moments before the process ended with his execution.”

Having a child violently murdered is unthinkable, Jan says, and she still lacks the words to explain it. But then to be dragged through years of pain by the judicial system was unimaginable, too.

Though she felt fortunate that the man responsible for Kandy’s death was quickly apprehended and taken off the streets, so he couldn’t hurt any other little girls or families, the pain for Jan had just begun. “We were locked in to the judicial system with this man for 12 years as his case wound its way through the system. “Though I’m not a proponent of the death penalty and never have been, my opinion wasn’t solicited or even considered,” she said. “I was never officially notified of any of the proceedings until receiving official notification of his execution date.”

Over the long years of the process during which she assumed Texas spent huge sums of money on prosecuting the killer, and then paying for his appeals, Jan grew more and more disgusted with how this system wasn’t victim friendly. Many questions arose in her mind: “When did Kandy’s family get the kind of attention, care and financial support afforded to the perpetrator? Who cared what it must have been like for Kandy as her hands were tied behind her back and she was shot in the head? Who cared how that affected me? How was I supposed to take care of myself when I could barely get out of bed in the morning, much less function as before? Who told the media what it was like for me to spend a month in a mental hospital just so I would not commit suicide to relieve the unspeakable pain I was feeling?” Nobody, she supposed.

“If they thought having him executed would relieve any of my pain or that of my family members, they were certainly mistaken.” From the time he was arrested, it was all about him. After the trial and conviction, Jan lived in fear that his conviction might at some time be overturned as appeal after appeal was filed on his behalf, all paid for by the state of Texas. The trial had been very difficult for Jan and her family.

“On the day he was executed, it only meant that the legal process was finally over. It didn’t bring Kandy back or erase any of the pain. However, it was only then that I was really able to begin to heal my losses. I could focus on myself instead of him and what might happen to him.”

If he instead had been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, Jan believes she could have more easily and readily been allowed to focus her attention on herself and her family and get to the hard work of grieving and healing sooner. “The purgatory of being held in suspense through the legal processes is devastating for the victim’s family and for the offender’s family as well. To me the death penalty is just legalized murder by the state.”

Jan Brown is a paralegal and a consultant who is self employed. She has been a Bridges to Life volunteer for 11 years, a restorative justice program aimed at reducing the recidivism rate of inmates. Jan has participated in over 50 Bridges to Life projects.
Read Additional Survivor Profiles

MVFR in Texas and in the Media

KBTX-TV http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Mother_of_Murdered_9_Year-Old_Returns_to_BCS_to_Share_Her_Story_146005935.html

The Bryan-College Station Eagle-Columnists>Ray Wilkerson http://209.189.226.235/columnists/raywilkerson/060301remeberingtragedy.htm

KBTX-TV www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mw4qmoDrt0

Bryan/College Station Eagle http://www.theeagle.com/local/Woman-describes-pain-after-daughter-died–7081646

The Human Rights Show: KPFT FM http://archive.kpft.org/mp3/100625_190001hr.MP3

Execution Watch: interview begins at 35:25 http://www.executionwatch.org/audio/ew_100519_180000.mp3

Dallas Morning News Blog: http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/05/east-texan-hono.html

Dallas Morning News Op-ed: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20100924-Chris-Castillo-Victims-families-4255.ece

Beaumont Enterprise: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/crime/article/Option-of-life-means-fewer-get-death-1036641.php

Austin American Statesman: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/burns-in-texas-no-one-should-pay-for-1319003.html

Rio Grande Valley Central: http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=612993&sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dbfae23a11286f2%2C0

Beaumont Business Journal: http://openpub.realread.com/rrserver/browser?title=/The_Examiner/beaumont_1203_1280&page=15

Brownsville Herald: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/felt-128650-anger-castillo.html

The Monitor: http://www.themonitor.com/articles/harlingen-52636-murder-reconciliation.html

The Valley Morning Star: http://www.valleymorningstar.com/articles/seeking-93879-victims-families.html

San Antonio Express News: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Your-Turn-July-7-2011-1455643.php#page-2

Dallas Morning News: http://letterstotheeditorblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/07/an-irreversible.html

Beaumont Enterprise: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/letters/article/LETTER-Death-penalty-must-be-abolished-1457098.php

Beaumont Enterprise: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/letters/article/LETTER-Death-penalty-is-not-the-answer-2136341.php

Today’s Catholic, San Antonio: http://www.satodayscatholic.com/MurderVictims.aspx

MVFR Visits around the State

2012
June 8 -9 TX Democratic Party, Houston
June 15-16, Texas Black Expo, Houston
June 20 -23 National Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly Fort Worth, Texas
Sept. 19-21 – Crime Victims Conference, NOLA

Victim’s Voices

New DPIC Podcast Explores Victims’ Families and the Death Penalty

The latest edition of the Death Penalty Information Center’s series of podcasts, DPIC on the Issues, is now available for download. This podcast, Victims and the Death Penalty, explores the issues faced by murder victims’ families when capital punishment is being considered. Generally, this series of podcasts offers brief, informative discussions of key death penalty issues. Other recent episodes include discussions on Representation and Race. Click here to download the latest episode of the podcast on Victims. You can also subscribe through iTunes to receive automatic updates when new episodes are posted and receive access to all eight episodes. Other audio and video resources can be found on our Multimedia page.(DPIC, Aug. 20, 2010). See also Victims.