There are tragedies big and small in The Gazette’s answer to “How do people sentenced to life sentences pay restitution?”
They include Iowans working for 28 to 95 cents an hour while they’re imprisoned, the garnishment of these meager earnings to make restitution, the murder Maria Lehner and Laura Watson-Dalton and immolation of their bodies 25 years ago, and that their lives were valued at just $150,000 each.
But perhaps most tragic of all is the pain the system of restitution, which is “seldom paid in full,” brings the victims’ family.
For Watson-Dalton’s family, that translated into quarterly checks for less than $10 that served more as a painful reminder than any useful amount of money.
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“For a while, my mom said she’d rather it didn’t come, because it was just a painful reminder every time,” [Diane] Watson said.
These payments aren’t bring loved ones closure or peace or even material comfort; the best they seem to hope for is that the convicted murderer might also be reminded of his crime as he makes these payments.
“I think it seems largely symbolic,” Watson said. “I wonder if it’s more of a reminder to him. I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I don’t know him, obviously.”
What would justice look like if the Watson-Dalton’s family might have a chance, instead of these painful reminders, at real reconciliation, restoration and transformation?
Abolition: Yes! 