That is my mother, Mary Ann, and that is the home the place she was dwelling when she was murdered nearly 24 years in the past. That is Jeremiah Manning, the person who killed her. He’s now on demise row. For a very long time, I wanted horrible issues for him. At one level, I wished to torture Jeremiah. There have been issues that I wished to do this had been excruciatingly painful. I wished to listen to his voice screaming, like my voice screamed that evening, like my household’s voices screaming. I wished him to really feel simply as [EXPLETIVE] as we did. However not anymore. I wish to save his life. My mother was cooking when Jeremiah confirmed up at her door the day she died. It was per week earlier than Christmas, and my mother liked Christmas. Her tree was up, and the desk was already set for Christmas dinner. The police discovered her physique in these woods, her throat slit. Jeremiah was convicted and sentenced to demise. He’s 43 now. He’s been ready to die for greater than half his life. I don’t know why Jeremiah killed my mother. I could by no means know, however I do know the trend I felt and the deep despair. I couldn’t escape what had occurred. I might really feel him at each household gathering, on each household trip. I’d be up in the midst of the evening speaking to him in my head. My grandmother Mimi was the ethical compass of our household. I requested her, “How did you take care of this?” And she or he stated, “Nicely, I needed to learn to forgive.” I noticed I wanted to make peace with Jeremiah. My aunt was Jeremiah’s third-grade instructor. He had studying disabilities and was held again at school thrice earlier than he dropped out. I discovered photographs on-line of his household and pals visiting him in jail. And it was like, “You already know, he has a mother that loves him, too, similar to I had a mother who liked me.” And I feel it was that — the truth that despite the fact that this horrible factor occurred — that he nonetheless had a mom and never solely that however that she liked him and that she visited him. This can be a little tougher than I assumed it was going to be. This is able to be about the place it occurred. [SOBBING] For there to be therapeutic, there must be mercy. Killing Jeremiah won’t carry us any closure. It won’t heal the injuries that had been created. Reasonably, that motion by the state will end in extra hurt and extra ache and extra struggling and never only for my household however for his household, which is one thing that individuals overlook about. My household and I would like the State of Louisiana to commute Jeremiah’s sentence to life with out parole. I imply, primarily what the state is doing is that they’re taking away any alternative for repairing the harm that’s been completed. We’re good about convicting and punishing folks, however we’re not so good about repairing the harm that was completed. The day that she died, we had talked on the cellphone earlier that morning, and he or she all the time ended the decision with “I like you.” And so the very last thing that I heard from her was, “I like you.” And as I’ve gotten older, I understand what a present that was.