Not only do they tell them to shut the fuck up, but in most states, when the victims family is a member of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, prosecutors will go out of their way to insure that they are misled as to what date sentencing is, they tell them the judge won't let them speak at sentencing and a myriad of other lies, to avoid having victims tell the jury NOT to vote to execute. I myself have a statement that I have prepared should I ever be the victim of a murder in which the prosecution chooses to seek the death penalty. It is a TRUE victim statement as my personal representative is instructed to read it to the jury during the sentencing phase. It says that no matter how heinous my murder might have been I would not want my death demeaned by the state seeking to take vengeance in my name.
The thing that floors me most is that conservatives, who don't trust the state to do much of anything trusts the state to put together a case adequately enough to allow them to kill someone. Shit most conservatives don't believe that government can adequately spend tax dollars, but when it comes to killing in their names the state's conduct get barely a glance. You should read some of the things that have happened in trials that have led to death sentences. Judges allowing Defense attorneys to sleep at counsel table during the trial, the admission of jail house snitches testimony that they give for a promise of leniency, State coroners falsifying evidence or building the evidence to match the state's case. Cops bringing ONLY the suspect to the witnesses and then asking for an eyewitness ID. 130 people have already been found to have been innocent of the charges that led to a sentence of death. Those 130 were lucky enough to have some DNA or recanted testimony, or some other evidence of their actual innocence. Unfortunately, in most DP cases there is not that kind of evidence. Who knows how many people we may have murdered in the name of vengeance. The interesting case right now is the man in Texas that was executed for arson which resulted in the death of his daughters. Experts have no completely debunked the junk science that led to his execution. Judges, prosecutors and legislators in texas have now all gone on the record saying they believe a man that their state killed was innocent of the crime charged. Once done, can't be undone, and a state that kills a person wrongly, thinking they have done justice, is nothing more than murderer.