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In light of Ohio's first pending execution in 35 years, one opponent still fights the death penalty despite losing her own daughter to murder nearly 24 years ago.

Marietta Jaeger spoke out against the death penalty last night at the First Presbyterian Church in Athens. Jaeger is a founding board member of the Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, a national organization that opposes the death penalty and advocates alternative programs to reduce homicide and crime.

Jaeger, from Detroit, said she opposes the death penalty because it is expensive, racist, capricious and has no deterrent effect.

The Ohio Public Defender's Office opposes the death penalty for an entirely different reason.

The office specifically is fighting the execution of Wilford Berry Jr. Berry, convicted of killing his boss in 1989, was sentenced to die by lethal injection today at 9 p.m. Berry has been nicknamed "The Volunteer" because he requested the death penalty rather than the life imprisonment charge handed down by the court. Because of this, his mental competency has been questioned.

The Associated Press reported the execution was postponed yesterday for at least three weeks by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The stay will remain in place until the appeals court hears lawyers' arguments March 24.

Jaeger said Berry is on a suicide mission, and she disagrees with this type of killing.

"We are executing mentally ill people," she said. "That is just unconscionable. These people are not in full possession of their faculties. They really shouldn't be held responsible to the point that they have to pay with their lives."

As a Christian, Jaeger said, she advocates forgiveness, healing and restoration instead of the death penalty.

Jaeger's 7-year-old daughter was abducted during a camping trip in Montana. A year later, she told a Montana newspaper that she wanted to speak to the kidnapper.

On the one-year anniversary of the abduction, to the minute, the kidnapper called Jaeger to taunt her. Instead of reacting violently, Jaeger said she asked, "What can I do to help you?" The abductor broke down in tears and the hour-long phone conversation eventually led to his arrest. The way to recover from the death of a loved one is to let go of the hate, she said.

"There are no amount of retaliatory deaths that can restore my little girl to me," Jaeger said. "Life is sacred. No matter how I feel about this person, in God's eyes he was just as precious as my little girl. I don't want to kill anyone in anyone's name."

Jaeger said she favors spending money on programs and activities that address the root causes of crime in place of the death penalty.

"You don't have to kill people to keep society safe from them," she said. "Our laws should be based on a higher moral principle that speaks better of us as a civilized society."