‘Our Family Is Forever Broken’: A Discourse Study on Victim Impact Statements from George Floyd’s Case

Abstract

Victim Impact Statements (VIS) facilitate victims’ participation in the judicial process by enabling them to speak out the harm they have sustained. It also serves as a form of testimony for judges and jurors in making legal decisions. Employing discourse information theory and transitivity system, this paper aims to examine how VIS fulfill their dual objectives as a means to relieve grief for the victim’s families and serving as verbal testimony in court. To this end, this paper analyzes how ideational meanings are realized through linguistic choices and information structures in three VIS from George Floyd’s case, and further explores their perceived impact through an analysis of audience responses. Findings reveal that the three VIS exhibit similar information structures and process type distributions, which are predominately fact-oriented and then effective in expressing grief. Moreover, the audience show strong empathy towards the victim’s families and widely criticize the defendant and his mother for lacking remorse and apology, which may offer indirect insight into how such statements may influence judicial perceptions. This paper provides a linguistic perspective on how VIS function as tools of emotional expression and judicial reference, influencing perceptions of justice within the court and in broader social contexts.