Catholic bishops, leaders decry Florida executions

By Jean Gonzalez - Florida Catholic - Orlando

• See related column: 'Though shall not kill' — not even a murderer

CHAMPIONSGATE | As the U.S. bishops gathered for their plenary assembly, they voted on the letter that would be sent to their own episcopal shepherd — Pope Francis.

The letter spoke about what would be discussed during the two-day meetings held June 15-16, 2023, at the Omni Championsgate in the southern part of the Diocese of Orlando. One of the points made within the letter: the prayerful disdain and opposition to the execution at the hands of the state of Florida on the evening of June 15.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant — the fourth of 2023 — for Duane Owen, who has been on Florida’s death row for 37 years. He was convicted of the murders of 14-year-old Karen Slattery, 14, in Delray Beach, and single mother Georgianna Worden, 38, in Boca Raton. Owen was put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m., a time when the bishops broke for dinner after afternoon prayer.

“Sadly, on this very day, as this assembly meets, the state of Florida is set to execute a convicted man. We share in your opposition to the death penalty,” the U.S. bishops wrote in their letter. “Capital punishment is indeed a false answer that does not solve the problem for which it is invoked and introduces new elements of destruction. We pray for the victims of heinous crimes and for the protection of the indelible dignity of every human being. Your Holiness, we pray for you and we humbly ask you to bless our assembly and the work that lies before it.”

Owen was the 103rd person killed by the state in the name of its residents since 1979. The mention against the use of the death penalty in the letter to the Holy Father follows the example of Florida’s archbishop and six brother bishops. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in Florida, the bishops have consistently written to Florida’s governors urging stays of execution. At the annual Catholic Days at the Capitol, Florida’s bishops gather for a personal meeting with the governor, and/or his staff, during which they also explain their disdain for the use of the death penalty and urge its disuse.

The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, the lobbying arm of the Florida bishops, wrote a May 31 letter to DeSantis, who is Catholic, asking him to stay the execution of Owen and commute his sentence to life without parole. In the letter Michael Sheedy, the conference’s executive director, recognized that Owen’s “senseless and horrific acts tragically ended the lives of these young women and have caused immeasurable grief and suffering to the victims’ families, loved ones and communities.” 

“However, taking Mr. Owen’s life will not restore the lives of the victims,” Sheedy wrote. “Intentionally ending his life will do nothing but perpetuate violence in a society steeped in it. Society must be kept safe from Mr. Owen and those like him, but that can be done effectively without resorting to more violence.” 

Since 2018, the Catechism of the Catholic Church has taught the death penalty is morally “inadmissible.” Pope Francis cited St. John Paul II explaining this teaching in his 2020 encyclical “Fratelli Tutti.” 

Owen was convicted of horrific crimes, which include rape and murder of two women, one a 14-year-old freshman at Pope John Paul II High School (now St. John Paul II Academy) in Boca Raton. But even at the time of his trial, Owen’s competency was in question. 

What was not presented at trial was Owen’s own horrific childhood, which psychiatrists have since stated in court contributed to his proclivity for violence and his lack of remorse.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty explained how Owen, who committed his crimes and was sent to death row at 23, was born to alcoholic parents and orphaned at 11, after his mother died of cancer and his father committed suicide in Owen’s presence. Owen was sent to an orphanage where he was sexually and physically abused and forced to have sex with a 35-year-old childcare director.   

“We firmly believe that Duane (Owen) should be separated from society and held accountable for his actions, which life without the possibility of parole satisfies,” Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty wrote to Florida’s governor. “By commuting Duane Owen's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole, you will send a message that the State of Florida cares about protecting people with serious mental illness, and child survivors of sexual abuse, even those who commit horrific crimes.”

Opponents of the death penalty gathered with Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Thursday afternoon on the grounds of Florida State Prison in Starke. They gathered across the street from where the death house is located to pray for Owen and his victims, as well as staffers involved in the execution.

“The execution of Duane Owen is yet another stain on the State of Florida, further solidifying our place on the wrong side of history. Tonight’s execution was the fourth in an execution spree fueled solely by political ambition,” Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a statement. “Tonight, we killed a human being with schizophrenia, one of the most severe and debilitating mental illnesses a person can live with. How a society treats the sick and the broken says volumes more about the society than it says about the individual. We, the People of the State of Florida, are failing miserably.”

“With today’s scheduled execution of Duane Owen, Gov. DeSantis is once again signaling that he is bent on making Florida one of the most aggressive death penalty states in the country — all while calling himself a ‘pro-life’ Catholic,” said Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network. “In light of the governor’s recent presidential bid, this reckless pursuit of executions should be of grave concern to Catholics not just in Florida, but nationwide.”