When Felecia Marshall lost her daughter Lexi to homicide, she didn’t know her grief would eventually connect her with other families facing the same devastating loss. What began as a desire to ensure people knew “who Lexi was” grew into Grant Me Justice, an organization that supports families affected by homicide through advocacy, awareness and direct support.
Marshall told Families as Allies Family Partner Coreaner Price that the work is rooted in recognizing both the permanence of grief and the importance of walking alongside families for the long term. “We know that this is a lifetime of grief,” Marshall said. “We will always be missing our babies, always.”
Marshall said the idea began after three people were convicted in connection with Lexi’s murder and received plea agreements. She left the courtroom feeling that her daughter had been reduced to a case rather than remembered as a person. Marshall wanted people to know that Lexi played basketball, loved LSU and liked lima beans. She also began thinking about other families who had gone through the criminal justice system and had come away feeling as she did. After meeting with another grieving family, Marshall realized those families needed more than an opportunity to tell their stories. They needed ongoing support, including counseling. That realization eventually led her to connect with a counseling center that could provide free emotional support to families.
Today, Grant Me Justice’s work centers on advocacy, awareness and direct support. The organization advocates for families in the courtroom and in everyday life, educates the community about how homicide affects entire families and provides practical assistance that can include counseling and help with needs such as utility bills and housing.
Marshall emphasized that grief cannot be separated from everything else happening in a family’s life. A violent death can compound previous trauma while families are also trying to work, pay bills, care for children and navigate a criminal justice process that can last for years. “Life keeps on life-ing,” Marshall said, describing how grief and trauma continue alongside all the other demands families face.
Advocacy is particularly important because Marshall believes survivors too often feel excluded from the criminal justice process. Families may enter court expecting the process to center their loved one, only to discover that the case belongs to the state and that the family has no formal place at the tables occupied by prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge.
“Where is the family? Back there anywhere,” Marshall said, referring to the court’s public gallery. “Find your seat anywhere you can find it—in the audience.”
She disagrees that they belong in back, saying her belief is families need “to be heard, to be a part of the process.” Grant Me Justice has worked to ensure families are represented and supported in court and has partnered with a law firm to help represent them there.
For Price, the conversation underscored why relationships between organizations such as Families as Allies and Grant Me Justice matter. Price has lost her own son and described how she first connected with Marshall after seeing Grant Me Justice’s work. In her role with Families as Allies, Price sometimes begins working with a family around a child’s educational needs only to learn that behavioral changes began after a sibling or another loved one was murdered. That creates an opportunity to connect families with additional support. “I’ve been able to connect families to Grant Me Justice as a resource, and also Families as Allies as the other resource for us helping,” Price said.
That connection reflects an important principle for family support: Families rarely experience challenges one at a time. Grief can affect mental health, education, employment, housing, finances and relationships, while the expectation from the outside world is often that people should simply keep going. Marshall said the impact of grief is underestimated and too often treated as though it should end after a certain amount of time.
Grant Me Justice takes a different approach—one built around relationships, tangible help and the understanding that grief does not expire. For Families as Allies, working alongside organizations with that understanding helps ensure that when families reveal the deeper circumstances affecting their lives, they can be connected with people who are prepared to listen, understand and walk with them.
