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Shelby Farah's mom speaks out against death penalty at panel discussion

A local mother fighting for her daughter's memory is speaking out against the death penalty and she's joining in the larger debate across Florida as death penalty cases are on hold.

Tuesday night Darlene Farah and others spoke about how the death penalty has impacted their lives.

“I spent 18 1/2 years in prison, a majority of them on death row here in Florida,” said Florida death row exoneree Seth Penalver.

“Every time we walk into that courtroom and I have to look at the person that took my child's life away,” said Farah.

Darlene Farah lost her daughter, Shelby Farah, two years ago to murder. Farah has pushed for the death penalty to be taken off the table against her daughter’s accused killer, James Rhodes.

“He put an offer on the table for two life sentences to run consecutive plus 20 years ... so I've been begging the state to take his offer. Of course they don't want to,” Farah said.

The event, "Life after Tragedy," was hosted by the Justice 4 Jacksonville Coalition, a group committed to reducing the use of the death penalty in Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit, which includes Duval County. According to the coalition, the 4th Circuit is No. 1 in the state for death sentences.

“If a person gets sentenced to the death penalty it's not over. You got 20, 30 years back and forth to court reliving the nightmare over and over and over,” Farah said.

Action News Jax reached out to the office of State Attorney Angela Corey and received the following statement:

"The death penalty is a viable sentence in the state of Florida. We will follow the law, and in appropriate cases State Attorney Corey will seek the death penalty."

One thing the coalition is working towards is a death penalty review committee, which would work within the State Attorney’s Office to review potential death penalty cases.