The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops has called on Gov. Ron DeSantis to halt two executions set for the same day, warning that the state’s authority does not extend to ending human life — even the lives of those convicted of grave crimes.

In a letter dated July 21, 2026, the bishops urged DeSantis to stay the scheduled July 28 executions of James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone Jr. If carried out, the simultaneous executions would mark the first double execution in Florida since May 12, 1964.

The Cases

Duckett was convicted in connection with the 1987 rape and murder of Teresa McAbee, an 11-year-old girl. His execution had previously been stayed by the Florida Supreme Court to allow for DNA testing; when results came back inconclusive, the stay was lifted and the conviction was allowed to stand.

Occhicone was convicted in the 1986 murder of Martha Artzner and received an additional life sentence for the murder of Raymond Artzner.

The bishops did not dispute the gravity of either crime. Michael Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated plainly that calling for a stay of execution is not a dismissal of what these men did. “To punish with lifelong imprisonment is not to minimize the heinousness of these men’s crimes,” Sheedy wrote. “It is rather to recognize with awe that God is the author of life.”

Church Teaching on Capital Punishment

The bishops grounded their appeal in Catholic teaching, which has moved with increasing clarity toward opposition to the death penalty in recent decades. In 2018, Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to describe capital punishment as morally “inadmissible,” a formulation that went beyond previous language allowing for its use in exceptional circumstances. Two years later, his 2020 social encyclical Fratelli Tutti elaborated on the same argument, affirming the inviolable dignity of every person regardless of the wrong they have committed.

Sheedy invoked that framework directly, writing that “not even a murderer loses his personal dignity.” The bishops’ position is that the state’s legitimate duty to protect society can be fulfilled through permanent incarceration without resorting to execution.

DeSantis, who is Catholic, has not publicly responded to the bishops’ letter. His administration has overseen a marked rise in Florida executions, a trend documented in a 2025 report by the Death Penalty Information Center, which identified Florida as one of four states driving an increase in capital punishment nationally.

A Broader Pattern

The Florida bishops’ appeal is the latest instance of Catholic leaders in the United States speaking out against state-sanctioned execution on the grounds of human dignity — a principle the Church applies broadly across questions of life and social order. Earlier this year, two other U.S. bishops similarly condemned deaths occurring in immigration enforcement operations, warning against any erosion of the Church’s foundational commitment to recognizing the dignity of every human person.

Catholic social teaching holds that the state possesses genuine authority and a serious obligation to defend the common good and punish wrongdoing. But that authority, as articulated in the revised Catechism and in Fratelli Tutti, is not unlimited. The Church teaches that where society can protect itself through other means, execution is not warranted — and that the trend toward its abolition reflects a deepening recognition of human dignity consistent with the Gospel.

Whether DeSantis will grant the stay or allow the executions to proceed on July 28 remains to be seen. The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops has not indicated what further steps, if any, it plans to take should the governor decline to act.

Category: Bishops