Death row pastor calls on Byron Donalds to halt executions for six months after he takes office

No state has executed more death row inmates over the past two years than Florida, but with a change of administrations taking place in January, anti-death penalty advocates are calling on Gov.-elect Byron Donalds to pause on any further executions.

The Rev. Jeff Hood is spiritual adviser to two men scheduled to be executed within the next month. He is urging Donalds to commit to a six-month moratorium, between Jan. 5, when he takes office, and July 5.

“We’re asking for this to be a moment in which the state takes the opportunity to investigate what 40 executions in multiple years has cost,” Hood said Wednesday in a remote press conference. “We are asking the governor to lead the way in taking the opportunity to see what pieces are not in place to support those who are being pushed and forced to carry these executions out. We should be knowledgeable about how much these executions are costing.”

Hood said he would like the governor-elect during that pause to create an independent commission to determine whether the existing process, which has conducted more executions than any other part of the country, is reliable, fair, and gives courts and defense attorneys adequate time to prepare.

Florida had never executed more than eight inmates in a single year until last year, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed death warrants for 19 people, nearly four times as many as any other state. The state has executed 19 people again this year, and the governor has signed death warrants for three more executions before the end of the year.

Donalds told the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times earlier this year that he supports the death penalty.

“This is not California,” he told the paper. “Chaos will not run our streets, and criminals will not run our communities. In Florida, we don’t play that game. Harm a Floridian, and you will face the consequences.”

Noting the reference to California, Hood said Wednesday that the Golden State has not carried out an execution in 20 years. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that he was commuting the death sentences of all 548 people on death row in California.

In addition to the call by Rev. Hood, a group of Florida death row exonerees and criminal justice advocates are scheduled to gather at the Capitol Thursday to call upon Donalds to pause executions. Thirty death row inmates since 1976 in Florida have been released due to a lack of evidence, more than in any other state in the country.

Hood is also spiritual adviser to death row inmates in Texas. In the past week, he has sent a letter calling upon Texas Democratic Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa to stop all executions there. Hinojosa told CNN last month that she while she personally opposes the death penalty, she would take each situation on a “case-by-case basis.”

Hood says his ask for Donalds doesn’t go as far because “we are trying to meet him where he is.”

Next

Three executions scheduled in Florida in the coming weeks:

• Thomas M. Overton on Nov. 19 for the 1991 murders of a Florida Keys couple. At the time, the female victim was eight months pregnant. The unborn child did not survive the attack. The case went unresolved for years until Overton, 70, was charged with the rape and murder of the woman and the murder of the man. Overton was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to death on both murder counts, although the jury’s recommendations for death were not unanimous.
• Ricardo Gonzalez, 56, on Dec. 1 in the 1994 first-degree murder of  a North Miami police officer in 1992.
• Willie Seth Crain Jr., 80, on Dec. 10 in the 1999 first-degree murder and kidnapping of a seven-year-old girl in 1998 in Tampa. Her body was never found.

In August, Hood called on DeSantis to personally view the execution of death row inmate William Silvia. The governor has not attended an execution since he’s been in office. Hood says that if Donalds doesn’t suspend the death penalty, he should sign a proclamation shortly after he is sworn into office declaring that he will be present at every execution for which he signs a warrant.

“That will make it a lot more believable that he believes in execution,” he said.