In too many places in America, "victim's rights" only matters when the perspectives of victims align with prosecutors, legislators, and state officials who use mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and cruel enforcement of the law to advance the politics of fear and anger. When survivors of violent crime want solutions more than retribution; when they want justice tempered by mercy or seek restoration and reconciliation, their perspective is discounted or ignored. Tonight, the State of Alabama executed Joe James even though the victim's family members persistently and repeatedly called on state officials to stop the execution. Their moral and religious beliefs compelled them to explain that neither they nor their murdered mother would want someone executed in their name. Their heartfelt and courageous pleas were ignored by state elected officials who had the authority to respond and block the execution. The death penalty is cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is a barbaric way to advance public safety and its continued use represents one of the most tragic aspects of injustice in America's criminal legal system. Tonight the injustice of an execution was compounded by the injustice of ignoring the pleas of Faith Hall's family members who've had to cope with the tragic murder of their mother and now must mourn another unnecessary and tragic death. What happened in Alabama today is not justice.