This is a letter I prepared for the resentencing trial on April 3, 2018 to address my mother's murderer. Due to rescheduling, I was not able to read it in person. I have been holding on to it since then and decide to share it today. Today makes 21 years of being without my mother.
Dear, Mr. Wallace Allen,
I once stood before you as a child, But today I stand before you a woman. My hope is that the words I speak not only penetrate your ears but also touches your heart.
I was eleven years old when I witness you take the life of my mother. I watched helpless, trembling with fear as you held a gun towards my mother while she begged for you not to take her life. Till this today,I am forever haunted by your actions that have left me with the last words I will ever here my mother say "Please, don't shoot me!"
The night of July 11th 1997 has left a permanent mark on my life. I will never forget the moments of frantically knocking on the door of our apartment to inform my Dad that my mother had just been shot while her body lay inside the car just outside our home. A home that was once built with love, laughter and fun is now turned into fear, sadness and grief. What was should of been a simple trip to the store for cereal were my mother would return home, tuck my sisters and I into bed and kiss us good night turned into a night were she would take her last breath, never to return home to us. In our last moment together,
I witness her die.
As I reflect on that night, I have come to realized that you did not only take one life, you took six. You took the life of my entire family, and also including yourself. I have decided to include you because you are now fighting against the consequences of your choices. A fatal choice you made 21 years ago. A crime that you have now become a victim too.
The effects of your actions have touched so many. You took the life of a woman how meant so much to her family and her community. You took a mother from her 3 daughters, a wife from her husband, a daughter from her mother, a sister from her brother, a favorite cousin, niece and friend, and also grandmother from grandchildren who will never have the chance to meet her . Your decision to pull the trigger that night brought darkness to my world. When Carol Marie Rountree's life ended. It left a void in my heart and tore apart my family. That night, I lost my mother but most importantly you took my role model. You took my hero. The person I wanted to be just like when I grew up. I never thought on the last day of her life it would end without giving me the chance to say good-bye or
tell her how much I love her, one last time.
Mr. Wallace Allen,i want you to know that I do not hold any hatred towards you in my heart and I pray that as I have forgiven you, you have also found a way to forgive yourself. While closure is a task that I continue to search for daily. It is understanding and mercy that has lead me to forgive you, releasing myself from the pain of your choices and taking my life back. I have decided I will no longer live in fear or be a victim to what I've witness you do. I will no longer be a prisoner to your choices. I will no longer be the sad girl with a sad story but a woman who has defied all the odds and conquered by turning my pain into passion. While I have chosen to forgive you. It's being without my mother that makes it hard for me to forget what you did. And because of this, I believe that you should spend the rest of your life in prison. Today, we may discuss and debate whether your life sentence is fair punishment for the crime you committed 21 years ago, but one truth will always remain the same.
The life sentence you have given us will never change.
To all who are present, thank you,
Shera Bush
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