“My sister, Laura Webb-Elody, was murdered in the Seal Beach Salon Meritage massacre on Oct. 12, 2011. She died along with seven other people that day, many of whom I knew and loved. My mother also was shot but survived.
In the last five and a half years, I have learned more about the criminal justice system and the death penalty than I could have anticipated, all of it disturbing. Yet nothing has shaken my conviction that capital punishment is wrong and unnecessary. Far from bringing peace to victims’ families, I’ve found it brings yet more heartbreak.”