It arrives at the public doorstep, they say, only because politicians are afraid to appear heartless toward victims. In real life, criminal cases can be messy. Take the knife scenario. The process is designed to determine if there is a victim. Battered women's organizations also raise concerns.
Troubling situations arise in other cases as well.
Rachel King of the ACLU conducted research on dozens of death penalty cases, interviewing victims' families. Family members often changed their minds from the beginning of the process to the end. She points to the case of Karla Fay Tucker, a convicted murderer who was executed in Texas. The husband of the murder victim vehemently sought the death penalty. But the victim's brother opposed it with equal passion.