Florida Catholic Bishops Publicly Criticize Governor Ron DeSantis’ ​“Alarming” Execution Rate

In a let­ter issued ahead of the exe­cu­tion of James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone on July 28, 2026, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops ​“wish[ed] to remind Catholics of the teach­ing of our Church against the use of the death penal­ty in sit­u­a­tions — like our own — where blood­less means are suf­fi­cient to pun­ish offend­ers and pro­tect pub­lic safe­ty.” Noting ​“Florida’s alarm­ing rate of exe­cu­tions” and the state’s efforts to expand the death penalty’s scope, the Conference writes to ​“invite a renewed con­sid­er­a­tion of this top­ic that looks beyond par­ti­san lines to the teach­ing of the Church and her moral author­i­ty.” The Conference, in addi­tion to its pas­toral let­ter, had also called on Governor Ron DeSantis to stay the exe­cu­tions of both Mr. Duckett and Mr. Occhicone, writ­ing that ​“the crimes of which these men were con­vict­ed are grave­ly evil,” but “[t]o pun­ish with life­long impris­on­ment is not to min­i­mize the heinous­ness of these men’s crimes. It is rather to rec­og­nize with awe that God is the author of life, and to reserve him the tak­ing of human life except where it is oth­er­wise impos­si­ble to main­tain the common good.”

The Conference’s let­ter reflects the doc­tri­nal shift that began with Pope John Paul II, who argued the death penal­ty could rarely be jus­ti­fied in soci­eties with the means to oth­er­wise pro­tect the pub­lic. In 2018, Pope Francis went fur­ther, for­mal­ly declar­ing the death penal­ty ​“inad­mis­si­ble” and revis­ing the Catechism of the Catholic Church to reflect this position.

Gov. DeSantis allowed both exe­cu­tions to pro­ceed as sched­uled and in a speech with the Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference, he not­ed he ​“presided today over two exe­cu­tions in the same day — first time that’s hap­pened in a long time,” adding he does not ​“take joy in doing that; it’s a weighty thing.” The gov­er­nor told the sher­iffs that death penal­ty appeals take ​“way too long,” and that he was deter­mined to speed up a sys­tem the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic had thrown ​“off its schedule.” 

That expla­na­tion did not sat­is­fy Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who was among the sig­na­to­ries of the pas­toral let­ter. Mr. Duckett, 68, and Mr. Occhicone, 80, had been impris­oned for three decades or more and ​“weren’t a threat to any­body out­side of prison,” Archbishop Wenski said, adding that the cir­cum­stances raised an obvi­ous ques­tion: ​“so some might say, ​‘Why exe­cute them when nature will take its course soon­er rather than later?’” 

Asked to account for the governor’s approach, the arch­bish­op said he ​“can’t explain the think­ing oth­er than that [Gov. DeSantis] wants to come across as a tough guy,” not­ing there had been ​“a long stretch of time” with­out exe­cu­tions before Gov. DeSantis ​“all of a sud­den” accel­er­at­ed the pace. Archbishop Wenski ques­tioned how much of the governor’s increase in exe­cu­tions is tied to polit­i­cal aspi­ra­tions, stat­ing a tough-on-crime record could give Gov. DeSantis ​“a leg up for a future pres­i­den­tial run.” He was skep­ti­cal, too, that exe­cu­tions offer vic­tims’ gen­uine clo­sure: ​“Killing some­body doesn’t bring their loved ones back,” he said, adding, show­ing ​“that killing is bad by killing [a defen­dant]” is ​“not very coherent.”

Some of Gov. DeSantis’ fel­low Catholic gov­er­nors have moved in the oppo­site direc­tion. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor, denounced the death penal­ty in June 2026, acknowl­edg­ing his long-held belief in its val­ue as a deter­rent was not sup­port­ed by evi­dence. Gov. DeWine, in a state­ment, wrote that ​“with the dra­mat­ic drop in peo­ple being exe­cut­ed, and the over two-decade wait time for those who are exe­cut­ed, it is hard to make the case for the death penal­ty being a deterrent.”

Thus far into 2026, Florida has car­ried out 12 exe­cu­tions — triple the num­ber of exe­cu­tions car­ried out by any oth­er state dur­ing the same peri­od. That total builds on last year’s record-set­ting num­bers, when Florida car­ried out 19 exe­cu­tions, the most of any year since the state rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1976.

The debate over the pace of Florida’s exe­cu­tions comes as the U.S. observes an impor­tant anniver­sary. On August 3, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) broad­cast ​“Florida’s Death Penalty at 50: A Conversation with Those Who Lived, Litigated, and Documented the Birth of the Modern Death Penalty,” mod­er­at­ed by FADP Executive Director Grace Hanna. The pan­el — attor­neys Susan Cary and David Kendall, and soci­ol­o­gist Michael Radelet — reflect­ed on the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 2, 1976, deci­sion rein­stat­ing cap­i­tal punishment nationwide.

Mr. Kendall, who was among the NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers rep­re­sent­ing death row pris­on­ers at the time, recalled trav­el­ling to Washington D.C. by train to obtain a copy of the Court’s rul­ing and bring it back to LDF’s New York office, then call­ing clients to deliv­er the news. Ms. Cary described the shock of the deci­sion, the ​“soul search­ing” she did, and her result­ing deci­sion to assist peo­ple fac­ing exe­cu­tion — work she still does today, fifty years lat­er. Professor Radelet recalled spon­ta­neous­ly join­ing a protest against the rul­ing before decid­ing to put his skills to oppose the death penal­ty in Florida and lat­er in Colorado, which abol­ished the prac­tice in 2020.

Florida pris­on­er John Spenkelink, rep­re­sent­ed by Mr. Kendall and fel­low LDF attor­ney Deb Fins, was among the first peo­ple exe­cut­ed after the 1976 deci­sion. The pan­elists described rep­re­sent­ing pris­on­ers in an era before elec­tron­ic fil­ing — send­ing plead­ings by Greyhound bus or by plane to make dead­lines, and the dif­fi­cul­ty of telling clients when their death war­rants had been signed. They also returned to a theme that echoes through Florida’s cur­rent exe­cu­tion pace: the state’s clemen­cy process, once con­sid­ered the ​“fail safe” of the death penal­ty sys­tem, has not result­ed in a sin­gle com­mu­ta­tion since 1983.