Victim Support Groups

Narrator: These families of murder victims wish what they call their monsters would get the same thing Robert Harris got. The monsters are those who killed their loved ones. Ron Russe was murdered by his ex-girlfriend in December of 1987. This is his sister, Susan Fisher, on the stand testifying how Linda Richio stalked him and shot him in the back after Ruse rejected her. It was dubbed the "fatal attraction" murder. Susan is grateful for the support group because a murder death is so terrible.

Fisher: The grief period is longer and more intense than most kinds of death. You have to deal with the judicial system for the rest of your life in most cases. You have to deal with the publicity that the murderer gets, and no one else is equipped to know how to handle that but someone else that's gone through it.

Roach: Thank you very much for your...

Narrator: Sheriff Jim Roach said he didn't think the Harris case would open the floodgates to executions especially when the system is so slow.

Roach: Until such time as the US Supreme Court refines the appeal processes, I think we're in for these unending minute appeals on every conceivable issue you can think of.

Narrator: Listening to Roach was Ginger Allen, whose daughter, Pamela, was murdered by Pam's husband, who drove over her repeatedly in her Mercedes. This little girl's daddy was working at Toritos when thieves entered and stabbed him to death last year. And Sammie Smith still mourns for her murdered daughter.

Smith: My support group, my support group rang me up many, many times and kept me going. It just gets so hard sometimes.

Narrator: The biggest applause of the evening went to Deputy District Attorney Kate Elke who said that execution is state law, and it should be enforced.

Jim Wilkerson, Ten News in Oceanside.

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