Florida bishops petition governor to stay two executions set for same day

By Kielce Gussie

On July 21, the Executive Director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, Michael B. Sheedy, sent a letter to the Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, urging him to “stay the executions” of two men, James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone, Jr, and “commute their sentences.”

The two men were convicted of different murders: Duckett of eleven-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987, and Occhicone of Raymond and Martha Artzner, murdered in 1986. Both are scheduled to be executed on July 28.

Sheedy stressed the crimes of which these men are convicted “are gravely evil” and these losses are “profound sorrows which their loved ones will carry to the end of their days.”

The Executive Director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops is petitioning the governor for a stay in their executions. The Bishops are asking that their sentences be commuted to life in prison without parole.

The depths to which people can sink

Reflecting on Pope Saint John Paul II’s encyclical letter, Evangelium Vitae, Sheedy pointed out that the Pope was not unaware of the “the darkness and depravity to which human beings can sink”—having lived through both the Nazi and Soviet regimes. With this personal understanding of how good and evil play a part in everyday life, the Polish Pope urged everyone to respond to “the hostility of the powers of evil” in the way God has shown us.

At the beginning of Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II contemplated the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible. Cain killing his brother was a terrible sin: “the taking of innocent human life.”

Sheedy noted that God did not “let Cain off the hook.” Instead, God gave him a severe punishment, but did not demand Cain be put to death. Reflecting on that story, the Polish Pope wrote, “Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity.”

For this reason, the bishops of Florida urge Governor DeSantis to not move forward with the executions of Occhicone and Duckett. “To punish with lifelong imprisonment is not to minimize the heinousness of these men’s crimes,” Sheedy explained. Rather, he said, it acknowledges that God is the author of life and the taking of life should be reserved to Him alone, “except where it is otherwise impossible to maintain the common good.”

Furthermore, Sheedy highlighted how “especially callous” it would be to require state officers to execute two men on the same day.

The Bishops stress to Governor DeSantis that upholding justice and exercising mercy are not mutually exclusive. “We can entrust the final judgment of every individual to God.” The letter also expressed the Bishops’ prayers for the repose of the souls of Teresa McAbee and of Raymond and Martha Artzner and for the consolation of their families.

Concluding the letter, the Executive Director shared the Bishop’s prayers extend also to Governor DeSantis to consider their request, ending with a scripture passage for reflection:
“Do I find pleasure in the death of the wicked—oracle of the Lord GOD? Do I not rejoice when they turn from their evil way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23).