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