If the state of Florida is for protecting life, it should be against executing Duane Owen

In a certainly unforeseen turn of events, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued a temporary stay of execution to allow psychiatrists to assess the sanity of Duane Owen, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 15.

The governor’s original signing of Owen’s death warrant came just days after he signed into law a bill that allows for the death penalty for perpetrators of sexual violence against children in Florida.

We, the thousands of members of L'chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty, join countless others who believe this law is wrong – and who also believe it would be wrong to eventually execute Duane Owen.

Our group has periodically corresponded with Duane, who was sent to death row at the age of 23. Duane was born to alcoholic parents. His mother died of cancer; shortly thereafter, his father committed suicide when Duane was just nine.

Duane was then sent to an orphanage where he was sexually and physically abused, including by those who were supposed to protect him. The sexual trauma that Duane Owen experienced as a child left an indelible impact that led him to a life of crime. This culminated in the heinous rape and murder of Karen Slattery (who was 14 years old) and Georgianna Worden (who was the mother of two children).

May their memories be everlasting blessings.

Initially, DeSantis chose to respond to this chronology of horrors with the scheduling of yet further killing, this time by the state. We respectfully submit that this approach fits the well-known definition of insanity that has often been attributed to Albert Einstein (a prominent Jewish figure who also opposed the death penalty): "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

In signing the death warrant for Duane Owen, DeSantis sought to perpetuate very same cycle of violence and death that he claims to hope to end through the wanton political pursuit of barbaric laws allowing for state-sanctioned murder.

The death penalty demonstrably has failed to deter crime. Instead, it continues to create new victims, including the executed, their loved ones and the executioners forced to carry out the killings.

We at L’chaim are keenly aware of this reality and oppose every execution without exception. This includes the case of Robert Bowers, who has been charged with the October 2018 shooting deaths of 11 Jewish worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Together with our partners at Death Penalty Action, we fight against each execution in the United States, and we also vociferously advocate against the increasing calls for executions in Israel.

Our opposition to state murder is grounded in the fact that, like one of our co-founders, many of us at L’chaim are direct descendants of Holocaust survivors. Among those who survived was Elie Wiesel, the celebrated writer and Nobel Prize winner – and the following words by Wiesel are what guide us at L'chaim:

“With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.”

We also follow in the footsteps of renowned Jewish theologian Martin Buber and other Jewish human rights luminaries who opposed the execution of the Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann.

Our Jewish tradition teaches us the following: “Whoever destroys a life, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)

If the state of Florida professes to be “pro-life,” then the planned, state-sponsored killing of any defenseless human being should be anathema – and that should apply to the life of Duane Owen.

L’chaim – to Life!

Cantor Michael Zoosman is an ordained member of the Jewish clergy in Maryland. He is a co-founder of the group L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Gov. DeSantis should not allow Duane Owen to be executed