The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops (FCCB) sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), appealing for the reduction of Donald Dillbeck's death penalty to life imprisonment with no chance of parole. 

Dillbeck is currently serving multiple sentences, including one for the murder of Faye Vann in Tallahassee in 1990, for which he was sentenced to death. In addition, he is serving a life sentence for killing Lee County Deputy Sheriff Dwight Hall in 1979, as well as committing armed robbery and burglary. 

“We are deeply disheartened that you have signed a fourth death warrant,” Michael Sheedy, executive director of the FCCB, wrote in his letter to DeSantis. The executive director of the FCCB represents the state’s bishops when it comes to matters of state politics. “As we approach the date of Donald Dillbeck’s scheduled execution, we urge you to choose life over death for Mr. Dillbeck by granting a stay and commuting his death sentence to life without parole.”

DeSantis signed the death warrant for Dillbeck on Jan. 23. Dillbeck has been on Florida's death row since 1991, and his execution is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 23. If it is carried out, it would be the state's first execution since the death of Gary Ray Bowles in June 2019.

That marks the longest period without an execution since 1983. DeSantis has attributed the long span between executions to the COVID-19 pandemic and has said the gap does not represent a shift in the state's position on the death penalty, according to the Archdiocese of Miami.

Currently, there are 299 people (three women and 296 men) on Florida's death row. Since 1973, 30 people have been exonerated. The FCCB said Catholics and members of the community will convene throughout Florida before Dillbeck's planned execution to offer prayers for the victims of violent crimes and their families, those who are on death row, the governor and for the cessation of the application of the death penalty. 

"We also ask that you choose life for Mr. Dillbeck because of the harms caused by implementing the death penalty in Florida,” Sheedy continued in his letter. “Its use is a violation of the dignity of the person and an indictment on the low value placed on human life itself in society. We hold that the death penalty should be inadmissible due to modern systems of incarceration, whereby society can be kept safe and prisoners punished.” 

The bishops say there are better options than the death penalty.

"The alternative to the death penalty of lifelong incarceration without parole is a severe and more appropriate form of punishment that does not perpetuate the cycle of societal violence by taking someone’s life,” they said in their appeal, according to the Archdiocese of Miami. “Moving forward with Mr. Dillbeck’s execution would only further coarsen society’s views on the sacredness of all human life and cause moral injury to the death row staff who must actively participate in his killing after spending years treating him with dignity and respect.”