In the Breivik trial, this meant giving every victim (survivors as well as the families of those killed) a direct voice. Victims were individually represented by 174 court-appointed lawyers. The court heard 77 autopsy reports, 77 descriptions of how Breivik had killed them, and 77 minute-long biographies "voicing his or her unfulfilled ambitions and dreams."

This is really interesting. I think that this is much more important than most people realize.

I have a friend whose mom was brutally killed in my rich, essentially crimeless area. It was something that just doesn't happen and it happened to him. We got drunk and he opened up to me one night and he said that the 4 years in between the murder and the moment he stood in the courtroom and talked about his mother and all she did and who she was the most angry and dark time. When he got to talk in the courtroom, with her killers there, that was what allowed him to finally let go. He had be in therapy, trying to better himself, tried antidepressants, lots and lots of weed smoking, everything you can imagine. He had talked about it endlessly. But all it took was 5 minutes in the courtroom and he was finally able to move on.

He said it felt like he had been working on a long math problem that he couldn't quite figure out and then suddenly, in an instant, he just realized everything and there was a grand release and relief and finality to the whole thing.

He knew the guys were going away before that moment. He knew they wouldn't see the light of day again. But that didn't give him what he needed.