Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / James R. Acker, David R. Karp -- pt. I: Personal accounts: the experiences of co-victims of murder, other crime victims, and victim advocates. Matters of life or death / Charisse Coleman -- Feelings from the heart / Dan Levey -- A tiger by the tail : the mother of a murder victim grapples with the death penalty / Linda L. White -- The death sentence : for criminals or victims? / Shane Wagner -- Building a bridge / David Kaczynski, Gary Wright -- Accidental death is fate, murder is pure evil / Stanley and Phyllis Rosenbluth -- Finding hope : one family's journey / Roberta Roper -- My journey and the riddle / Marsha Kimble -- pt. II: Legal perspectives. Causing death and sustaining life : the law, capital punishment, and criminal homicide victims' survivors / James R. Acker, Jeanna Marie Mastrocinque -- Victims, survivors, and the decisions to seek and impose death / Wayne A. Logan -- Extinguishing the victims' Payne or acquiescing to the "demon of error" : confronting the role of victims in capital clemency proceedings / Charles S. Lanier, Beau Breslin -- Putting a square peg in a round hole : victims, retribution, and George Ryan's clemency / Austin Sarat -- pt. III: Research perspectives. The death penalty and the families of victims : an overview of research issues / Margaret Vandiver -- Secondary victimization among families of homicide victims : the impact of the justice process on co-victims' psychological adjustment and service utilization / Mark D. Reed, Brenda Sims Blackwell -- Their day in court : the role of murder victims' families in capital juror decision making / David R. Karp, Jarrett B. Warshaw -- Victim characteristics and victim impact evidence in South Carolina capital cases / Theodore Eisenberg, Stephen P. Garvey, Martin T. Wells -- Is restitution possible for murder? : surviving family members speak / Judith W. Kay -- Facilitated dialogue on death row : family members of murder victims and inmates share their experiences / Mark S. Umbreit, Betty Vos, Robert B. Coates, Katherine A. Brown -- pt. IV: Policy implications: capital punishment, criminal justice practices, and victim services. Reaching out to the other side : defense-based victim outreach in capital cases / Tammy Krause -- Learning from homicide co-victims : a university-based project / Michael L. Radelet, Dawn Stanley -- The process of healing and the trial as product : incompatibility, courts, and murder victim family members / Peter Loge -- The impact of the death penalty on crime victims and those who serve them / Carroll Ann Ellis, Karin Ho, Anne Seymour.