The Impact of the Death Penalty---on Jurors!

Tim Jones, Jr. mugshot and during his trial.

     An anti-death penalty group says jurors who convicted a South Carolina man of murdering his five young children and dumping their bodies days later near Camden, in Wilcox County, Alabama, suffered from mental health issues after reaching their verdict:

Jones and the children he mudered

A psychology professor at Wofford College, Dawn McQuiston, explained to The State (newspaper) that jurors can experience mental health issues after exposure to gruesome testimony. This “secondary trauma,” McQuiston said, produces symptoms such as “sudden crying, nightmares, anxiety and depression” comparable to the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. People who have experienced secondary trauma, she said, often need psychological counseling in its aftermath. “The people typically selected for jurors — they’ve never seen or heard such graphic details before. You can only imagine the shock to their system,” said McQuiston.

                                                            From a Death Penalty Information Center  article HERE.