FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- INNOCENCE WATCH FLORIDA - May 26,
2000
PLEASE GIVE BENNIE DEMPS A
STAY AND TIME TO PROVE HIS INNOCENCE
The Innocence Watch Group
thanks the Bishops of Florida
for their heartfelt concern
for a human life and appeals to the Florida courts
to stay the execution of
Bennie Demps.
We also appeal to Jeb
Bush to provide necessary time and safeguards in this case
to be
absolutely sure an innocent man is not
executed.
History has shown us that innocent lifes have been
executed in US.
The history must not repeat itself in Florida
now.
From all over the world people are concerned about
the possibility of
rushing into execution without necessary time to
prevent a tragedy.
For information:
THE INNOCENCE WATCH GROUP
Dianne Abshire
Pat Hoover
Sissel Egeland
PRESSRELEASE May 26, 2000
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.
# # #
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.
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