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| Denver woman feels the power of restorative justice |
| By denverpost.com - Kevin Simpson |
| Published: 07/10/2012 |
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AURORA, CO — As Sharletta Evans prepared for her face-to-face meeting with the man who killed her son, she couldn't escape one uncomfortable but gnawing need — to touch his hands. "The harm he caused me was through his hands," said Evans, whose 3-year-old son, Casson, was slain in a 1995 drive-by shooting. "The fact that he actually pulled the trigger, it was something about the hands that kept coming to me." But when the opportunity arose May 23, Evans hesitated, uncertain whether she could follow through with her request of Raymond Johnson, the man serving life without parole for the murder. There was so much else Evans needed from Johnson, and it had been so long. He was 16 at the time of his crime, but he now stood a month shy of his 33rd birthday. She had spent the years grieving and adapting to the loss of Casson before realizing she had gone as far as she could on her own. When legislation last year cleared the way for a pilot program in restorative justice with the Colorado Department of Corrections, Evans — who had testified on behalf of the measure — embraced the opportunity to go first. She and her older son Calvin Hurd, who was 6 when gunshots peppered the car where he sat sleeping with his brother, began more than six months of preparation for a direct dialogue with Johnson. Part of that involved revisiting the crime. Evans had driven with her two children to a northeast Denver duplex to pick up her grandniece because there had been a drive-by there the previous night. She left her sons in the car. While Evans was inside, three teens drove by and sprayed more than a dozen shots at the house and car. One struck Casson in the head. It was later determined that Johnson fired the fatal shot. Read More. |
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What a powerful testimony for this lady. Even though her human nature was cautious and maybe a little hesitant she through faith trusted in Him. Forgiveness and true repentance cannot be given nor received except God empowers the ability to do so. This opens the floodgates of a double portion of the Spirit of Christ to manifest Himself for great blessing in her life. If one "through the Spirit" does not judge "through resentment" but can clearly see (discern by correct judgment without bitterness) God can bless the man/woman wanting forgiveness as well as the one offering such. God allowed Job to lose all of his children at the hands of the unjust but in the end he received a double from the LORD.