Victim impact statement examples

My name is Linda, and I am Daniel’s mother. Daniel was twenty-three when he was killed by a driver who had been drinking.

Daniel was the one who called. Every Sunday evening my phone would ring, and he would tell me about his week, the meals he was learning to cook and the friends he made laugh. He was saving for a trip he never took. He was kind to people who were easy to overlook.

Since Daniel died, I don’t sleep through the night. I still reach for my phone on Sunday evenings. I went back to work after three months because we needed the money, but I can’t keep my mind on anything for long, and some days I sit in the car before I can go inside.

His younger sister was nineteen. She left college for a semester because she couldn’t be away from home. His father and I hold on to each other, but we grieve in different ways, and some days we have nothing left to give.

We paid for our son’s funeral. I have bills from counseling that I never thought I would need. The money matters less to me than the empty chair, but it is real.

I want the court to know who Daniel was, and that our family will carry his death for the rest of our lives. Thank you for listening.

My name is Rosa. I am thirty-four, and before the assault I thought of myself as a calm, steady person.

I had a broken cheekbone and two surgeries. My face still aches when the weather turns cold, and I have a scar I see every morning. My doctor says the numbness near my eye may not go away.

The fear has been harder than the pain. I don’t go out after dark. I check the locks three or four times before bed, and I wake up at the smallest sound. I started seeing a counselor, and it helps, but it is slow.

I missed six weeks of work, and when I went back I asked for a different schedule so I would not be leaving in the dark. I stopped seeing friends for a long time because I didn’t want to explain. My sister came to stay with me, and she is still here.

I am working to get my life back, and I wanted the court to hear in my own words what this crime has taken from me. Thank you.

My name is Walter. I am seventy-eight, and I worked for forty-one years before I retired.

The money that was taken was most of what my wife and I had saved. It was meant to last the rest of our lives and leave something for our grandchildren. The amounts are on the restitution form, but the numbers don’t say what they meant to us.

I spent months on the phone with banks and filling in forms. I bought credit monitoring, and I still check our accounts every morning. My wife takes care of our bills now, because I don’t trust myself with them.

The worst part is the shame. I was proud of being careful, and I believed someone who lied to me. I stopped telling my children about our money, and for a while I stopped answering the phone at all.

We have changed how we live. We gave up things we had planned for years, and we worry about what happens if one of us gets sick. I wanted the court to know what this crime has done to two people who did everything right for a very long time. Thank you.

Members of the board, my name is James. My sister Carol was killed eighteen years ago, when she was twenty-six and I was twenty-two.

I have read my mother’s statement from the sentencing hearing many times. She has died since then, so I am here for both of us.

Carol would be forty-four now. I think about the life she didn’t get: the work she loved, the family she wanted. My children know her only from photographs and the stories I tell them.

Our family has spent eighteen years living with her death. My mother never really recovered, and my father stopped going to the places they used to go together. Each parole review brings it all back, and I lose weeks of sleep before every hearing.

I am afraid of what release would mean for our family’s safety and peace of mind. I ask the board to consider what this crime has done, and still does, to the people who loved Carol. Thank you for hearing me.