New Journal Lends Victims a Voice

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Today, the Institute for the Advancement of Criminal Justice
(IACJ) announced the release of the first of many compelling stories
that will be posted to the Victim's Voice Webpage
(http://www.iacj.org/VictimVoices.htm) in connection with the recent
publication of The Death Penalty in California, the most comprehensive
look at the death penalty in California to date.

Too often, victims voices, especially those whose murderers now
sit on death row, are hidden behind those of death penalty
abolitionists and the voice of murderers themselves during news
coverage and on Websites and blogs. IACJ seeks to give victims that
voice - a place to express their feelings about their loss and their
views on capitol punishment in California.

"No decision by a prosecutor carries more gravity of purpose or
duty than to seek death," wrote Greg Totten, Ventura County District
Attorney in The Death Penalty in California. "That is why our exercise
of discretion has consistently reserved the death penalty for only the
worst of the worst crimes and murderers."

As Barbara Christian, mother of Terri Lynn Winchell, points out in
her statement, her daughter's killer falls in to that category.

"As long as the murderer is alive and breathing, the crime scene
is replayed constantly before the eyes of the loved ones of the
victim," wrote Christian. "Let these victims see the case closed, and
put to rest the murder scene. The pain and loss will never end, but
they can rest by realizing that justice has been served."

Her daughter's life was ended by Michael Morales more than 27
years ago in Woodbridge, Calif. Christian writes about the painful
details that are now often left out of news coverage and high level
discussions relating to the death penalty and the legality surrounding
its implementation.

"Morales tried to strangle her with his leather belt which she
broke by fighting so hard for her life in that car. Her thick,
lustrous hair was pulled out in chunks from her scalp as he beat her
head in 27 times with a claw hammer, her body stabbed repeatedly with
a butcher knife, and then her body thrown out in the cold dark night
where she was raped repeatedly as she died. This scene I have lived
with now for 27 years," she wrote.

Morales was scheduled to be executed more than two years ago, but
just two hours before his scheduled execution, two court-appointed
anesthesiologists withdrew from the procedure, refusing to administer
the lethal injection and forced the state to call off the execution.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that lethal injection procedures
are legal, however, California's lethal injection process is still
being heard in the California Court of Appeals. If the death penalty
is reinstated in California, Morales is presumed to be the next inmate
executed.

Unfortunately, Christian is just one of the victims of more than
650 condemned inmates on death row. IACJ will continue to give victims
a voice on its Website until their voices are as loud as those of the
convicted criminals.

Please check in each week as IACJ publishes a new statement by a
victim of a California capital punishment case.

For Christian's complete story and for more information on The
Death Penalty in California, please visit www.iacj.org.

Interview requests should be directed to Mitch Zak at (916)
448-5802.

For Institute for the Advancement of Criminal Justice
Mitch Zak, 916-448-5802

Copyright Business Wire 2008