Florida’s Catholic bishops are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to grant a stay of execution to Duane Owen, and commute his sentence to life without parole, Crux, an independent news service that covers the Vatican and the Catholic Church, reports.
Owen, sentenced to death for two separate murders, Karen Slattery, and Georgianna Worden, in 1984, is scheduled to be killed June 15.
“Taking Mr. Owen’s life will not restore the lives of the victims. Intentionally ending his life will do nothing but perpetuate violence in a society steeped in it,” Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops Executive Director Michael Sheedy wrote in a letter to DeSantis, according to Crux.
“Justice is best served by the alternative punishment of life-long incarceration Society must be kept safe from Mr. Owen and those like him, but that can be done effectively without resorting to more violence.”
On May 22, DeSantis issued a hold on Owen’s execution to allow three psychiatrists to assess Owen’s mental competence. But about a week later, he lifted the stay Flaglerlive reported, stating that the psychiatrists found that Owen ““has the mental capacity to understand the nature of the death penalty and the reasons why it is to be imposed upon him.”
If it goes ahead, this would be the state’s fourth execution this year and the fourth in four months.
