EDITORIAL: The power of forgiveness

Sometimes, a person does something so magnanimous and so unexpected that it can make even the most hardened soul have renewed faith in humanity. Cynthia Portaro delivered such a moment last week at the Regional Justice Center. Her actions were so moving that veteran public defender Joseph Abood said he’d “never seen anything like it.”

On the night of March 30, 2011, Mrs. Portaro lost her 22-year-old son, Mike. He was in the parking lot of the Tenaya Creek Brewery, selling tickets to his hip-hop group’s show, when he was shot to death.

Brandon Hill was convicted of the murder, as well as robbery with use of a deadly weapon and grand larceny auto. After initially denying all involvement in the crime, Hill, before the court, apologized to Mike Portaro’s family.

Mrs. Portaro could have ignored him. She could have told him to burn in hell. Instead, she forgave him.

On Monday, Cynthia Portaro approached prosecutors, who were seeking the death penalty, and told them she did not want to see Hill executed. The district attorney’s office honored her wishes, withdrew the death penalty and now plan to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“I got what I wanted — an apology from Brandon,” Mrs. Portaro told the Review-Journal’s David Ferrara. “I felt a sense of relief that there is no hatred, animosity, anger. Because if you live in Christ, you cannot live with those things.”

But Mrs. Portaro’s compassion is more remarkable than it appears. She lost another child, her daughter Christina, in an ATV crash the same year Mike was killed. Her husband, Richard, died on Thanksgiving last year. Despite this loss, she found it in her heart to accept an apology from the man who murdered her son — and spare his life.

“I personally didn’t want to see another person die,” Portaro said before hugging members of Hill’s family.

Those who support capital punishment, and those who have supported the executions of the killers of their loved ones, are not in the wrong. Capital punishment is not about revenge, and it certainly isn’t a deterrent to murder. It’s the ultimate public safety measure — it’s about making absolutely certain a convicted killer can never harm anyone again.

That said, the public would also be a lot safer if everyone had the grace and gravitas of Cynthia Portaro.