FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2000
Contact: D. Michael McCarron
(850) 222-3803
mccarron@flacathconf.org
Can Good Follow From Special Session on Death Penalty?
| D. Michael
McCarron, Executive Director of the Florida Catholic Conference, issued the following statement on the January Special Session on the Death Penalty. |
Tallahassee, FL -- It is discomforting that the first order of business for the legislation in the new millennium had to be finding a faster way to execute those on Florida’s death row. "The Florida Catholic Conference still has very real concerns that changes to accelerate appeals will result in the wrongful killing of an innocent person."
Undoubtedly the new law to expedite appeals will be challenged. The select few in both Chambers who were able to fully understand the main bill were never able to agree on its effect or on its constitutionality. And, despite claims by lawmakers that there was no public opposition to dual track provisions, the record should be clear that public testimony from the Bench, from the Bar and from other advocates all expressed serious reservation about this policy that has been said to create chaos in other states.
Lawmakers did surface other problems with the death penalty, and though leadership prevented their consideration in the Special Session, they must be held accountable for the promise to review the questions of execution of the mentally retarded, racial injustice, and the need for unanimous juries for a sentence of death. The requirement for a unanimous jury is the practice in Texas, Georgia and the majority of other states.
Florida’s alternative to the death penalty, that of life in prison without parole, received little attention by lawmakers. This was a session that attempted to focus upon the very real anguish of families of murder victims. Our Churches and communities must become more active and give greater comfort and care to these grieving families. But we must help them also to resist the natural desire for revenge against those who have committed such terrible wrongs. Such revenge only feeds a climate of violence and mistakenly sees killing as a solution to the problem. The long process of appeals, necessary to ensure that none who are innocent will be executed, interrupts healing and closure for families. This would be eliminated through Florida’s alternative of life in prison without parole, a course now adopted by almost all in the Western World.
Society needs to be protected from criminals, but we need not go to the extent of executing them. The cycle of violence must end. We must seek justice without vengeance.# # #