CNA Newsroom, Mar 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
The Catholic bishops of Florida are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to commute the death sentence of Edward James, who is scheduled to be executed by the state next week for a 1993 double homicide.
James pleaded guilty in 1995 to the killings of Betty Dick and her eight-year-old granddaughter Toni Neuner in Casselberry, Florida. He had strangled and raped Toni prior to her death before stabbing Betty Dick. He was ultimately apprehended in California.
In a Friday press release, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops (FCCB) said it had “implored Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay the execution of Edward James and commute his sentence to life without parole.”
FCCB Executive Director Michael Sheedy in a letter to DeSantis noted that the murders were “heinous” and “tragic.”
“It is indeed a duty of the state to protect the lives and safety of its citizens and to impose appropriate punishment for crimes, and we recognize your responsibility in ensuring this duty is carried out,” Sheedy said.
But, he wrote, the “intrinsic dignity and unalienable rights of every human being are not annihilated by even gravely evil acts.”
“It is better for the people of Florida to punish severely without themselves acting to kill a human being,” Sheedy wrote, arguing that a life sentence without the possibility of parole “is still a severe punishment which also serves to protect society from further danger.”
The Church “teaches that all human life is sacred,” the FCCB said on Friday, writing: “Even people who have committed terrible acts and caused great harm possess a human dignity instilled by God, our Creator.”
The modern penal system has rendered executions “unnecessary,” the bishops said.
James is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. The Florida Supreme Court this week refused to block his execution, as did a federal appeals court.
The bishops’ conference said next week that prior to James’s execution Floridians “will gather across the state to pray for him and his victims, for DeSantis as he considers the request to stay the execution, and for an end to the death penalty and the cycle of violence in society.”
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Hey, you Florida bishops. I get that all life is precious.
But I would think you might want to say something every once in a while about the three thousand or so babies who are butchered and scalded and puréed every day of every week of every month of every year in this country.
As opposed to say, you know, a creep who raped an innocent little girl and then murdered both her and her mother.
Now, once all the babies are safe and sound, then, yes, say something about the vilely heinous murderers.
But, until then, I think you ought to speak up about this most horrific holocaust humanity has ever witnessed, abortion.
Unfortunately, usually all we get is crickets from most of you in the Catholic hierarchy.
Please go back and read your quotes about the value and dignity of all life, and then think about those thousands of little babies being killed by their mothers.
And then ask the Holy Spirit what He wants you to say.
One benefit of the death penalty is the stark choice of final conversation and this has been the advocacy of classical Catholic mor theology. I hope this soul, even at this late stage, sees that!!
“James pleaded guilty in 1995 to the killings of Betty Dick and her eight-year-old granddaughter Toni Neuner in Casselberry, Florida. He had strangled and raped Toni prior to her death before stabbing Betty Dick. He was ultimately apprehended in California.”
And why, bishops, would you assume here that the death penalty is not the necessary and appropriate consequence of this heinous crime? Why should criminals who murder children receive mercy?
I propose that instead of their telescopic sympathy, a Bishop gets to be a “celly” of this individual for a month or so.