Death penalty opponents are pleading with two U.S. governors to halt the impending executions of a pair of mentally ill prisoners, including a Florida inmate scheduled for execution Feb. 23.
“We pray that Gov. (Ron) DeSantis will consider the full context of Donald Dillbeck’s life and support and defend the value of all life,” Bishop Derrick L. McRae, an Orlando pastor and president of the African American Council of Christian Clergy, said in a release issued by a coalition of death penalty abolitionists.
Donal Dillbeck
“Dillbeck, a broken and mentally ill man created in the image of God, is a sinner, as well as a person who has been sinned against,” McRae said.
Dillbeck, who received a death sentence in 1991 for killing a motorist during a carjacking, has lost subsequent appeals despite being diagnosed with lifelong brain abnormalities.
“Throughout his life, no one intervened to protect Donald Dillbeck from horrific abuse and neglect. The systems and people that should have protected him failed him.”
“This man never had an opportunity to live a life that is whole and healthy,” Bishop Angel Marical, president of the Florida Fellowship of Hispanic Councils and Evangelical Institutions, said in the release. “Throughout his life, no one intervened to protect Donald Dillbeck from horrific abuse and neglect. The systems and people that should have protected him failed him.”
Spare the life
Death penalty opponents in Texas have launched a campaign involving religious leaders and medical professionals pleading with Gov. Greg Abbott to spare the life of Andre Thomas, who is scheduled for execution April 5.
Thomas was condemned for the 2004 stabbing deaths of his wife and two young children which, he told investigators, had been commanded by God. He subsequently gouged out both of his eyes while incarcerated.
More than 100 Texas faith leaders, dozens of state mental health professionals and numerous national organizations have submitted letters and a clemency petition imploring Abbott to commute Thomas’ death sentence.
“Andre Thomas is one of the most mentally ill prisoners in Texas history. Only the most mentally ill person could undertake these acts of permanent self-mutilation. If ever there was a case that warranted mercy, it is this one,” one of his attorneys said in a recent news release from groups advocating to prevent the execution.
Horrific mental illness
The statement included insight into the severity of Thomas’ mental illness.
“Five days after the murder, while in the Grayson County jail, Mr. Thomas pulled out his right eye, following the literal dictates of Christ’s injunction in Matthew 5:29 that ‘if the right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.’ After he was sent to death row, he gouged out his second eye, and ate it — seeking to ensure that the government could not hear his thoughts.”
In a letter to Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, national religious leaders, including Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians, urged the state to choose the path of healing instead of violence.
“Mr. Thomas … is indisputably one of the most severely mentally ill incarcerated individuals in Texas history.”
“Mr. Thomas suffers from schizophrenia, which led him to horrific acts of self-mutilation throughout his time in prison,” the letter states. “He is indisputably one of the most severely mentally ill incarcerated individuals in Texas history. Clemency would allow for Mr. Thomas to be kept in a secure psychiatric prison facility for the rest of his life, in order to receive the care he desperately needs.
“No useful purpose”
“Allowing Mr. Thomas to be executed — in his permanently disabled, mentally incompetent and vulnerable state — would serve no useful purpose other than pure vengeance, which we believe is not something Christians can or should pursue. Not repaying evil for evil (Romans 12:17) and turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) mean breaking the cycle of violence.”
More than 100 Texas leaders representing numerous faiths and Christian denominations also signed the letter to the governor, pleading for compassion.
“We know the decision of whether to commute a death sentence is one of the weightiest choices you must make,” the letter tells Abbott. “In Andre Thomas’s case, we are firmly convinced that granting him clemency is the path of morality, faith and justice. We urge you to do so and ensure that he is not executed.”
Signatories included numerous Baptist leaders, including Frederick Haynes, pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas; Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston; Garrett Vickrey, pastor of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio; Stephen Reeves, executive director of Fellowship Southwest; and Rick McClatchy, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas.
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