The day before Christmas Eve 2005, our father was robbed, humiliated, and murdered by two strangers that were high on meth. The murderers are now serving their life sentences as our family attempts to heal.

Recently, one of the murderers has changed her story to be that of an innocent bystander; that she herself is a victim of circumstance.  This dubious tactic defies the trial evidence, yet found a willing audience with the students of the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic at Lewis and Clark Law.  

Over the protest of the District Attorney and our family, the students at CJRC have now placed this innocent bystander nonsense into a clemency petition on the desk of their former classmate, Governor Brown, who graduated from the same law school.

Clemency must be reserved for those wrongfully convicted and, in some exceptional cases, the reformed. Neither is true in our case.  A murderer that hog-tied a father of five in front of the Christmas tree before executing him is not an innocent bystander.  By playing her own victim card, the murderer and CJRC have taken a cheap shot at justice and mercilessly taunted our family.

No one on the prosecution side of the table, from lawyers to the victim's family, supports this clemency.  We plea to Governor Brown, and our broader community, to deny Lynley Rayburn’s petition and shun the remorseless intention behind it.  To help, please contact the Governor's office, your local representatives, and post on social media.