Florida | First execution of 2024 deemed as ‘hypocrisy’

ORLANDO | In its 111-year history, investigations and former students accounts have chronicled how the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys both in Marianna and Okeechobee were not so much a reform school but rather a place where physical, sexual and mental abuse was rampant.

In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly signed a bill — without any press present and with only a handful of Dozier survivors and three representatives who sponsored HB 21 — in which the state will divide $20 million in compensation between those who attended the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in North Florida between 1940 and 1975, as well as the Okeechobee School.

This followed years of investigation, including in 2008 when then Gov. Charlie Crist in 2008 directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the Dozier School and the deaths alleged there, and a federal investigation that closed the school in 2011, which was under the control of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

One moniker from the institution in Marianna was the “White House Boys,” which according to News Service of Florida derived from the white concrete building where boys were beaten and raped by school workers.

One of those boys is Loran Cole, who was housed at Dozier School for Boys for five and a half months in 1984, at the age of 17.

And despite quietly signing that bill in June recognizing the brutality residents of the school faced, the governor signed a death warrant for the White House Boy in July. Cole is slated to be executed Aug. 29, 2024. It is the first execution warrant DeSantis has signed in 2024.

Cole was sentenced to death in 1995, for the murder of John Edwards, an 18-year-old Florida State University student. Cole was also convicted of robbing, raping and kidnapping of Edwards’ sister Pam, who was with her brother camping in the Ocala National Forest. Cole’s execution warrant comes nearly 10 months after Florida’s last execution, which was the last of the state’s six executions carried out in 2023.

In post-conviction appeals, Cole’s lawyers have chronicled the neglect, abuse and trauma Cole experienced — including daily beatings that resulted in two broken legs and being raped by guards — and argued it changed the entire trajectory of his life and led to the commission of his crime. Cole’s lawyers argued his “post-1984 criminal record also goes to show the effect that life in Dozier had on his psyche. That horrible place helped create the Loran Cole who sits on death row today.”

In a letter to DeSantis, Florida’s Catholic bishops implored DeSantis to stay Cole’s execution and commute his sentence to life without possibility of parole (the co-defendant in murder of John Edwards was given life in prison).

“Mr. Cole himself was beaten, raped and tormented at Dozier,” said Michael Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an Aug. 14, 2024, letter to DeSantis on behalf of the bishops of Florida. “He witnessed torture and daily beatings of other students. He was once forced to clean up the remains of another student who died by suicide after jumping off a building. He had his legs broken after trying to escape. Mr. Cole’s jury never heard about the physical and mental abuse he endured at the hands of officers at Dozier.”

Survivors of Dozier tell stories of beatings with leather belts, students being tied to a bed, students being put in dryers, forced labor and rape. Various news reports indicate between 80 and 100 children died at Dozier, with the location of their remains is unknown. A graveyard near the school has several unmarked crosses, which survivors believe are boys killed by staffers.

In 2010, while on death row, Cole watched a documentary about Dozier and was flooded with memories of his time there. He shared his memories with a prison mental health counselor.

“Never having received mental health and trauma treatment until his arrival on death row in his late 20s, Mr. Cole, at age 57, is not the same person who committed the grave crimes for which he was convicted,” Sheedy stated in his letter.

Maria DeLiberato, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said there are a “half dozen other men Florida’s death row who survived the abuse at Dozier, as well as countless others in the Florida Department of Corrections.” She described the governor’s signing of a death warrant on a Dozier survivor as “hypocrisy,” and said the “state-sanctioned cycle of abuse” must stop.

“Horrifically, shortly before Loran was released from Dozier, he was forced to clean up a smattering of blood and brain matter from another child who had jumped off the roof of one of the cottages and died by suicide,” DeLiberato said. “In passing the compensation bill for Dozier survivors, the state of Florida recognized its direct responsibility for the profound and lifelong impact of the horrific torture and abuse those men suffered there. For the State of Florida to turn around less than a month later and say they are justified in killing one of those survivors is unconscionable.”

Prayer vigils

Prayer vigils are scheduled throughout the state of Florida for the day of the execution, Aug. 29, at local parishes. San Pedro Parish in North Port and Sacred Heart Parish in Punta Gorda (Diocese of Venice) will host vigils. In the Diocese of Palm Beach, a vigil will be held at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola in Palm Beach Gardens and at the corner of Military Trail and Holly Road. See the linked prayer vigil list here and above.

Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty will lead a candlelight vigil in front of the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee at the time of the 6 p.m. execution. Because fencing and metal barricades have been placed around the outside perimeter of the mansion, the vigil will take place outside the perimeter in the small parking area that faces the mansion.

If the execution takes place, the group will also lead a service of remembrance for Cole and victim John Edwards the following day, Aug. 30, at noon at the Capitol Rotunda.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will be across the highway from the death chamber at Florida State Prison beginning 5 p.m. Aug. 29. In the Diocese of Orlando, buses will pick up passengers at Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, and Palm Coast and transport them to vigil in Raiford. First stop is Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 201 University Blvd. in Daytona Beach at 1:30 followed by stops at Destination Daytona in Ormond Beach and a Winn Dixie on SR 100 and Old Kings Road in Palm Coast.

For those unable to attend a live vigil, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will also host a live, informative, and prayerful online vigil beginning at 5 p.m. It will include live on-the-ground coverage of the vigils at the prison. Register here, or watch on the Death Penalty Action Facebook Page.

Source: thefloridacatholic.org, Jean Gonzalez, August 22, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

Former Florida cop to be executed on same day as 80-year-old Pasco man

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of capital punishment, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday cleared the way for 2 executions to occur on the same day. DeSantis reset the execution of James Duckett, whose execution earlier this year was stayed amid efforts to secure DNA testing and analysis of evidence in his case. Duckett’s execution was reset for July 28. That is the same day previously set for the execution of Dominick Occhicone. Court records indicate that Duckett’s execution is scheduled for noon. Occhicone’s is set to follow at 6 p.m.

Japan: Capital punishment for a minor

Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center The Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the death sentence given in a lay judge trial to a 24-year-old man for murders he committed when he was a minor raises questions about the lay judge trial system and capital punishment. These include whether the lay judges correctly understood the spirit of the Juvenile Law in sentencing the defendant to death. It was the 1st death sentence handed down on a minor in a lay judge trial. The murders took place in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2010 when Yutaro Chiba was 18 - meaning he fell under the purview of the Juvenile Law. Chiba was convicted of entering his ex-girlfriend's house and stabbing to death the girl's sister and a female friend of the girl with a butcher knife, seriously injuring a male friend of the sister and abducting the girl. Prosecutors said Chiba killed the victims because they were trying to separate him and his former girlfriend. Since Chiba pleaded n...

Texas: The inmates who refused to die quietly and had to be gassed out of their cells before execution

Former crime reporter Michelle Lyons, who witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, reveals the desperate acts of death row prisoners who refused to accept their fate After spending years or often decades locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, most Death Row inmates go willingly to their executions. However, some refuse to die quietly - with officers forced to gas them out of cells, strap up their heads and even give chase across prison grounds. Michelle Lyons, who has witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, exclusively tells Sun Online how certain inmates "fight like hell" in their last moments. On most occasions, Michelle watched from the witness area, with the killers already on the gurney - the stretcher where they'd be given a lethal injection. Seven prisoners once tried to escape from the Row in Huntsville - with one shoving magazines and newspapers under his clothes to help him roll over razor-wire fences. Others have had to b...

Florida executes Dennis Sochor

Man, 74, becomes oldest inmate executed in Florida in state’s 10th lethal injection this year Florida put to death one of its oldest prisoners in its history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was 1 of 3 older inmates scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation’s busiest death penalty state. Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. He was convicted of killing a woman on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.

Oldest inmate set to be executed in Florida will face strict spending limit for final meal

An entire category of food is also off-limits for final meal requests in Florida Florida is currently preparing to execute its oldest inmate later today (July 14), a 74-year-old convicted murderer who has been on death row since the 1980s—but his final meal will be limited by a strict budget. Dennis Sochor is scheduled to be put to death later today, making history as the oldest inmate to ever be executed in the state. The criminal, who has been on death row for nearly 40 years, will be administered the lethal three-drug injection, with the process due to begin at around 6pm.

Florida to execute William Silvia for 2006 shooting murder of wife

William Silvia, convicted of the 2006 shooting murder of his wife, Patricia, is scheduled to die by lethal injection in August, according to a death warrant filed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 17. If all previously scheduled executions go as planned, Silvia will be the 13th person put to death in Florida this year, following a record-breaking 19 executions in 2025. Silvia, now 61, went to his estranged wife's mother's house in Seminole County to attempt to reconcile with her, but first he calmly bought a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition, prosecutors said. After talking to Patricia Silvia, Silvia got the shotgun from his truck, shot her mother, Betty Woodard, in the face, and fatally shot Patricia in the head, court records show. Woodard, who was standing in front of her daughter, lost her left eye and the top portion of her nose.

Idaho | Death row prisoners sue over state's new firing squad

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Days after Idaho made the switch to a firing squad for executions, two Idaho death row prisoners next in line to be put to death sued the state prison system, saying its director withheld information about how she settled on the specifics for carrying out the method. Attorneys for prisoners Thomas Creech and Gerald Pizzuto filed suit this week in state district court against Idaho Department of Correction Director Bree Derrick. In the filing, they called her approval of an updated standard operating procedure for the firing squad and lethal injection as a backup method “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion and in excess of the statutory authority of the agency.”

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog