Data<\/a> from the Death Penalty Information Center indicates that he would be among the 10 oldest criminals executed in the U.S. since 1976.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018God is the author of life\u2019<\/p>\n
In their letter, written by Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops Executive Director Michael Sheedy, the Florida bishops acknowledged that Karen Spencer\u2019s death was \u201ctragic and horrific.\u201d The letter expressed \u201csorrow for the terrible suffering her loved ones have had to live with ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Spencer\u2019s crime was truly heinous and merits a severe punishment by the state,\u201d the letter said. \u201c\u2026Nevertheless, we ask that you spare the life of Mr. Spencer, who was sexually abused as a child by his father and had a paranoid personality disorder.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like bishops in many U.S. states, the Florida bishops regularly petition the state government to commute death sentences there. Florida is among the most active states in the country for carrying out death sentences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The state most recently executed Andrew Lukehart, a 53-year-old who was convicted of killing his girlfriend\u2019s baby in 1997. The Florida bishops had petitioned the state government to halt that execution as well, though it was ultimately carried out on June 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In their plea to DeSantis regarding Spencer, the bishops said a sentence of life in prison was \u201cnot [meant] to minimize the heinousness of Mr. Spencer\u2019s crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is rather to recognize with awe that God is the author of life, and to reserve to him the taking of human life except where it is otherwise impossible to maintain the common good,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The letter urged the governor to \u201cuphold justice and..exercise mercy.\u201d It further offered prayers for Karen Spencer \u201cand for the consolation of her loved ones.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If it proceeds with the execution, Florida will carry out the killing at Florida State Prison in Raiford, located between Jacksonville and Gainesville.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dusty Ray Spencer’s crime ‘merits a severe punishment,’ but the state should “exercise mercy,” the state bishops’ conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-318344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}