Florida Bishops Plead for Stay to Executions

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ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome

Date: 2006-10-11

Florida Bishops Plead for Stay to Executions

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, OCT. 11,

(Zenit.org).

- The bishops of Florida sent a letter to Governor Jeb Bush, asking him to stay two executions in the state.

Arthur Dennis Rutherford is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 18, and Danny Rolling on Oct. 25.

"We implore the governor to listen to the growing chorus of voices calling for a moratorium on executions in Florida and a careful examination of the state's death penalty system," the bishops stated in the letter released today.

The bishops acknowledged the crimes committed by the two inmates on death row, and the suffering they caused, but said that "we must resist the natural inclination to think that only by taking a murderer's life can justice be served."

"[T]he antidote to violence is not more violence" "we cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing those who have killed others," continued the statement, signed by 10 bishops representing all of the states' dioceses.

"Society must be protected from criminals," added the bishops, "but we need not go to the extent of executing them.

The cycle of violence must end."