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122 | 10 Julie and Kevin In Memoriam Facts of the case: In late 2000, Kevin was driving under the influence of alcohol and crashed into the car in which Lisa and Keith, Julie’s mother and younger brother, were riding. Kevin, age forty-two at the time of the crash, eventually pled guilty and was sentenced to serve eleven and a half years in prison. Julie and Kevin’s dialogue occurred on September 9, 2004. I interviewed Julie, Kevin, and the VVH coordinator and had access to their case files, letters exchanged, and the videotape of their dialogue. I have also corresponded or talked with both Julie and Kevin since for updates on their lives. On December 2, 2000, Julie lost two of her best friends. On that day a drunk driver’s car careened into the automobile carrying her nineteen-year-old brother, Keith, and her mother. They were a very close-knit family. Although Julie did not have an idyllic childhood, her mother’s love was constant and kept her feeling secure, and she said that she and her brother “were closer than most brothers and sisters.”1 Although Julie’s biological father did not live with them while she was growing up, he tried to help from time to time, but Julie felt, “It was more or less us three against the world.” When she was just nineteen years old, she married and gave birth to a son, and her mother became a huge presence in her son’s life. From the time he was three weeks old, he had an overnight at his grandmother’s house each week, and he grew up adoring her and his Uncle Keith. The Crash Julie remembers everything about the day of the crash, down to the tiniest detail. They were celebrating her son’s third birthday, and a number of family members joined them. Her mother had to be at work early the next morning so she, Keith, and Keith’s fiancée left around 6:30 p.m. that night. As Julie and Kevin | 123 Julie says, “They got up to go and never made it home.” The crash happened around 7 p.m. that night. “The man was coming around the corner and hit them head on. Killed my brother instantly—the airbag deployed, and he was so short, and he didn’t have his seatbelt on. He died immediately. My mother was alive, and they heliported her to the hospital; about three minutes from the landing pad she finally gave up.” Keith’s fiancée was in intensive care in a coma for several weeks; she ultimately survived. Julie knew nothing of the crash until late that night, when the phone rang. Her husband answered; the caller on the other end was Julie’s aunt. She told him that Julie’s mother and brother were dead. My husband turned around and looked at me with the strangest face. You could see the color draining. I just looked at him and I said, “No. There’s no way.” He just dropped the phone, and of course I could hear my aunt screaming when he dropped the phone. I just looked at him, and I said, “No.” He grabbed me, and I just said, “Who is it? Who’s dead?” He said, “It’s your mom and your brother.” The next few days went by in a daze. Julie was consumed with finding out more about the crash details and making funeral plans. It was not until four days following the wreck that they learned that it had not been her mother’s fault. “It was a man, and he was drunk. His blood alcohol content was 0.225,” and once he was discharged from the hospital the police transported him to jail.2 Kevin pled guilty to charges of vehicular homicide. Julie was told that there would be an opportunity in court for him to say something to the family as well as for the family to express their feelings. Julie’s remembrance of that day is that she was unimpressed with Kevin’s attempt to speak to the family: “He couldn’t even look at us. His back was turned against us. . . . I wanted him to face all of us. But now that I understand the actual rules of the court, I think it was something that he wasn’t allowed to do.” The family then read letters in front of the court. Julie read both her...

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