Capital punishment causes long term emotional injury to the family and friends of the person executed greater than that experienced by other methods of punishment. The mother, father, spouse and children of a person executed are permanently and deeply affected by the execution event and the human loss even though they may have played no part in the alleged crime. Relatives and friends may also be affected by feelings of guilt if they fear they contributed to the event in some way, say by not raising or protecting the child adequately during development. These feelings may never be resolved because the person they need to communicate with is dead.
