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Oba Chandler is set to be executed on Tuesday for three murders he committed in 1989. Years of appeals have made his case news on a regular basis. And as Mike Vasilinda reports, for thousands of other families who have suffered losses, each appeal reopens old wounds.

Carol Broihahn and Cynthia Ward’s sister Mary was murdered in 1982. They had forgotten about the killer until they were told he was being released, and for the last three months they have been fighting unsuccessfully to keep murderer Clarence Frederick  behind bars. Carole says the fight has dredged up feelings they had forgotten.

“It’s been like crucified again, and again and again, and again.” Says Carole. “Over and over again, living the same nightmare.”

Six thousand other families are in the same situation. So are the victims families of death row inmates. Each time there is an appeal Florida State University grief scientist Sally Karioth says families are forced to relive their trauma.“Once more their name is in the paper. Once more its the reminder of how brutal it was,” says Karioth.

Next week, three time killer Oba Chandler is set to be executed.  His death warrant lists six different appeals in the last 14 years. It is unclear if the victims family will attend. Karioth says whether or not they do, it’s not likely to provide closure. “Give someone a sentence they are there forever, without chance of appeal, and they are not going to revisit in the newspaper every six years, We’re not going to hear about them. They are really gone.”

Karioth is quick to point out that grief never leaves families who have lost a loved one, But she says reliving the trauma that comes with each headline is possible to avoid.

In 1994, Florida lawmakers changed the law so that life in prison really does mean life with no chance of parole, but the change does not apply to most inmates sentenced before 1994.