The Florida Catholic Conference
May 26, 2000

Contact: D. Michael McCarron,  PhD
850.222.3803
mccarron@flacathconf.org

RETRIBUTION DOES NOT JUSTIFY EXECUTION
(A Plea For Mercy for Bennie E. Demps)

Tallahassee  — The 1976 murder of Alfred Sturgis was a terrible crime.  His
brutalization and loss of his life arouse our deepest regrets and our
sympathy for his survivors.  Bennie Demps is scheduled to die on Wednesday
evening, May 31, for this crime.  The Bishops of Florida ask Governor Bush
to halt this execution. 

Neither retribution nor deterrence justify taking a human life, even one
guilty of a terrible crime.  It is only when society cannot be protected in
any other way that the death penalty is justified.  We diminish ourselves
as a people by taking away a human life.  Every human life must be
respected, even lives who fail to show that respect for others.  Florida's
alternative law of providing life imprisonment with no opportunity for
parole allows our society to be protected, and allows for remediation of
those who have committed crimes. 

Only a few do not acknowledge that our system of capital punishment is
imperfect.  We are regularly reminded of this by government appointed task
forces and commissions, new Supreme Court rules, recurring legislation and
even a special session to deal with problems of the death penalty.  Still
we do not find the affluent on death row; sometimes it happens that
co-defendants who plea bargain are even more culpable than those who end up
on death row; and, our consciences are plagued by concerns for racial
disparity and the possibility of executing an innocent person.

We join with others in calling for a moratorium on executions, but here and
now appeal to Governor Bush for clemency and a stay of the death sentence
for Bennie E. Demps.

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The Florida Catholic Conference is an agency of the Catholic Bishops,
established in 1969.  It speaks for the Church in matters of public policy,
serves as liaison to government and the legislature, and coordinates
communications and activities between the church and secular agencies.  The
Bishops of the seven dioceses in Florida constitutes its Board of Directors.