STATEMENT ON A
PLEA FOR MERCY FOR TERRY SIMS

February 23, 2000

   We extend our sincere sympathies to the family and loved ones of George Pfeil, for whose 1977 shooting death Terry Sims is scheduled to die on Wednesday morning.  But we ask our Governor to halt this execution.

   Society must be protected, but with Florida's alternative law providing life in prison with no opportunity for parole, we should not be going to the extent of taking life, even a life that has committed terrible evil.

   We diminish ourselves as a people when we take away the dignity of human life.  The commandment "thou shall not kill," will not be taught by killing people who have killed other people.  We must put an end to the killing especially execution by the state over which we have control.

   We appeal to the Governor for mercy and for a stay of the death sentence of Terry M. Sims.

Archbishop John C. Favalora
Archdiocese of Miami

Bishop John  J.  Snyder
Diocese of St. Augustine

Bishop John J. Nevins
Diocese of Venice

Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ
Diocese  of Pensacola-Tallahassee

Bishop Robert N. Lynch
Diocese of St. Petersburg

Bishop Norbert M. Dorsey, CP
Diocese of  Orlando

Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell
Diocese of Palm Beach

Bishop Agústin A. Román
Archdiocese of Miami

Bishop Gilberto Fernandez
Archdiocese of Miami

Bishop Thomas G. Wenski
Archdiocese of Miami