ATLANTA (AP) — Families of Georgia murder victims will now be allowed to watch the execution of their loved one's killer, a change in policy putting Georgia in step with most other death penalty states.

Joe Ferrero, acting corrections commissioner, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he would start letting families watch executions unless there was a compelling reason not to do so.

"I just feel like it's the right thing," Ferrero said.

On Tuesday, Carl Isaacs, the nation's longest serving death row inmate, was given a lethal injection for orchestrating the murders of six members of the Alday family at their southwest Georgia home on May 14, 1973.

Four members of the Alday family watched the execution, the first time in recent years a victim's family was allowed to observe an execution in Georgia.

The state Corrections Department had a long-standing rule against it, but the commissioner allowed it in the Isaacs case because of what he called "unusual circumstances."

Those circumstances included the length of time Isaacs was imprisoned -- 30 years -- and the gruesome nature of the crime. Ned Alday was gunned down along with three sons, a brother and a daughter-in-law, who was raped and then taken to a field where she was shot in the head.

Before Tuesday, Georgia had no record of any other victim's relative being allowed to watch an execution, but record-keeping goes back to only 1973, when the death penalty was reinstated.

Ferrero vowed to allow it in all future cases, though he could not guarantee future commissioners would maintain the new policy. Victims' relatives had requested many times in the past to watch executions, but were always denied.

"I don't think this is a bad precedent. I think it's an inevitable precedent," said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center. "There aren't enough compelling reasons to keep them out."

The national trend to allow victims' families to watch executions started in the early 1990s, fueled by victims' rights groups. Most of the 38 states that have the death penalty and the federal government allow victims' relatives to watch. Indiana and Wyoming are among the handful that do not.

For the Alday family, the issue was about seeing justice done -- firsthand.

"I think they should let the family of the people who are affected watch in all cases," said Nancy Blizzard, daughter of Ned Alday.