Jennifer Hudson: I’ve forgiven Eric Balfour

Jennifer Hudson can forgive the man, but she can't forgive the act. Less than a month after her brother-in-law, William Balfour, was convicted of murdering her 57-year-old mother, Darnell Donerson, her 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson, and her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, on October 24, 2008, the Academy Award winner shared her grief during an appearance on the September 9 episode of Oprah's Next Chapter.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Jennifer Hudson can forgive the man, but she can't forgive the act.Less than a month after her brother-in-law, William Balfour, was convicted of murdering her 57-year-old mother, Darnell Donerson, her 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson, and her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, on October 24, 2008, the Academy Award winner shared her grief during an appearance on the September 9 episode of Oprah's Next Chapter.On July 24, Balfour, 31, was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of ever being paroled."I'm not letting him off the hook for anything," Hudson, 30, told host Oprah Winfrey, 58. Though she holds him "very responsible" for murdering her immediate family members, Hudson said she's also learned to forgive Balfour."I feel like, for the most part, it's not his fault. It's what he was taught. How was brought up. We tried to offer love, but he was so far gone, he couldn't even see that. A lot of things came out [during the trial] that we didn't even know about from his upbringing. . . He never had a chance. He never had a chance," Hudson explained. "Had he had the love that my mother gave us, or the background that some have, then he would have stood a chance. How could your heart not go out to that?"When Cook County Circuit Judge Charles Burns delivered Balfour's sentencing in July, the singer -- who finished in seventh place on American Idol in 2004 -- "felt so many things," she told Winfrey. "There was definitely a celebration because he's off the streets. My child [David, Jr., 3] is going to be safe."US Weekly