Demonstrators hold up signs opposing the death penalty outside Florida State Prison, shortly before Michael Bernard Bell, convicted for a 1993 double murder, is executed on July 15. Photo courtesy of Fr. Phil Egitto
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FAITH LEADERS SPEAK OUT AS FLORIDA HITS EXECUTION RECORD
By Joshua Barajas, @Josh_Barrage
Senior Editor, Digital
Demetrius Minor wanted to put a stop to the executions in Florida.
Halfway through 2025, the state was on the cusp of matching, or even surpassing, its record of eight executions in a single year.
Minor, a minister at Tampa Life Church, was among more than 100 Florida faith leaders to sign a letter to Gov. Ron Desantis in early July, calling on the governor to “pause the signing of death warrants.”
It was a plea to a Christian elected official from faith leaders of different Christian denominations – Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic and The Religious Society of Friends among them. All urged the governor to work toward a justice system in Florida that “chooses life over death, healing over harm.”
“The death penalty is not a system of redemption. It is a system of retribution, of politics, and of grave error,” said Minor at a July 8 news conference in Tallahassee. He is also executive director of Conservatives Concerned, a group that questions the "alignment of capital punishment with conservative principles and values."
Watch the church leaders’ conference in the player above.
Minor directed his message to DeSantis, saying Floridians of faith, across political lines and denominations, were asking him to pause and “allow your conscience — and not just a calendar — to lead,” he said.
He and a handful of other signees walked the letter to DeSantis’ office, delivering it to staffers.
A week later, Michael Bernard Bell, a 54-year-old convicted for carrying out a double murder in 1993, received a lethal injection, making him the eighth person Florida put to death this year. Then a ninth — Edward Zakrzewski — was executed last week for the 1994 killings of his wife and two children, setting a new state record.
Florida has two more executions scheduled for later this month, a streak that death penalty opponents don’t see slowing. DeSantis has not yet responded to the letter, the faith leaders said.
Executions are up, but concentrated in certain places
A vigil outside the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee, Florida, on the day of Michael Bell’s execution. Photo provided by Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Florida is leading the nation in capital punishment at a time when the number of U.S. executions overall is higher than it was last year.
In 2024, there were a total of 25 executions across the nation.
As of Tuesday, when Tennessee executed Byron Black, 28 people have been put to death in just more than seven months. Another nine executions are scheduled for 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI).
And yet despite the national uptick, the number of U.S. executions has remained low compared to the high-water marks of the 1990s and 2000s, experts told PBS News.
About 61% of executions this year have been concentrated in three states, with Texas and South Carolina joining Florida, said Robin Maher, DPI executive director.
This is noteworthy, she said, because it shows “just how isolated” the use of the death penalty is.
How Republicans feel about the death penalty
Public support for the death penalty has trended downward since the mid-‘90s, according to Gallup. A poll released in November found that support for the practice in the U.S. hovered at 53%, a five-decade low.
The pollster found that the percentages of Democrats and independents who support the death penalty have decreased significantly in eight years, particularly among younger generations. Republican support for the practice has remained fairly steady, with support among younger Republicans declining slightly.
Minor has conversations about capital punishment with “pro-life” conservatives, or those who are “very religious and spiritual in nature.” He engages them in one-on-ones, informal coffee meet-ups, study groups at his church and in more public forums. He likes to talk about being “holistically ‘pro-life.’”
“‘Pro-life’ does not mean that there needs to be agreement with how one lives their life, but the agreement and the fact that they should live their life. And that this is in total alignment with the view that we need to preserve and sanctify human dignity,” he said.
“Capital punishment is becoming very unpopular,” Minor said. “The more people hear about it, the more people are exposed to it, the more they dislike it, and the more they distrust the use of it.”
Another consideration: Conservatives have an inherent distrust of government, which is heightened during today’s political times, Minor said.
He said that when he is talking with people who don’t trust the government to deliver their mail on time or truthfully report what’s in the Jeffrey Epstein files, he asks them why, then, they would trust the government with their lives.
Why is Florida increasing executions?
The Florida State Prison in Raiford where people on death row are executed. Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Last year, DeSantis signed only one death warrant, a document that formally sets the execution date when people on death row have exhausted all their appeals options.
That number jumped to 11 this year. And every person has been put to death or given an execution datewithin a 30-day timeframe.
Why the quickened pace? Death penalty opponents, including faith leaders, have pointed to politics possibly playing a factor and have some theories about why the governor has seemingly hardened his stance. Maybe DeSantis, hitting term limits in his state, is mulling another presidential run. Maybe he wants to be seen as tough on crime. Maybe he’s responding to President Donald Trump’s executive order on “restoring the death penalty,” though experts say such a pledge has little bearing on how states decide they want to carry out executions.
Whatever the reason, DeSantis — a known death penalty supporter — isn’t providing further explanation for the ramp-up. (The governor didn’t respond to multiple requests from PBS News for comment.)
Minor, a member of DeSantis’ Faith and Community Initiative, has been warm to the governor’s economic policies and leadership, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With capital punishment, “I do think he's been misguided on this issue.”
Faith leaders are considering their next steps and how they could come together again to raise awareness of what’s happening in Florida.
“There's always the hope of the governor softening his stance and changing his mind,” Minor said. “I have doubts on whether that can happen.”
One Big Question: What does this firing mean for the trust in economic data and institutions? Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Jasmine Wright of NOTUS discuss.
A worker inside an empty House chamber of the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Photo by Nuri Vallbona/Reuters
By Ian Couzens
Associate Producer, Politics
Joshua Barajas
Senior Editor, Digital
The gambit by dozens of Texas Democrats to flee their state has so far prevented the state House of Representatives from passing a new gerrymandered congressional map. The GOP plan, encouraged by President Donald Trump, would reshape five districts held by Democrats and give Republican lawmakers an advantage to possibly pick up those extra seats in the U.S. House.
On Tuesday, state Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he would seek a court ruling to have the seats of any Texas Democrats who remain absent be declared vacant. He gave the lawmakers until Aug. 8 to return to the state Capitol.
“If you don’t show up to work, you get fired,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Texas Democrats decamped to cities such as Chicago, Boston and Albany, New York, where they spoke out about the political stakes.
A warning from New York
Watch the clip in the player above.
“We are at war,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, welcoming six Texas Democrats to her state at a news conference in Albany on Monday, “and that’s why the gloves are off and I say, ‘Bring it on.’”
The New York governor said if the Texas maps move forward, she would push her state to redraw its own congressional map to favor Democrats.
“They’re leaving us no choice,” Hochul said of Republicans. “We must do the same.”
Watch the clip in the player above.
Democratic Texas Rep. James Talarico, who’s currently in Illinois, said he and his colleagues have committed to staying out of Austin for the next two weeks.
“I am hopeful that the retaliation being promised by blue state governors may pressure Texas Republicans and Donald Trump to walk back from the brink,” he told PBS News’ Geoff Bennett. “We don't want gerrymandering in any state. It's wrong when Republicans do it. It's wrong when Democrats do it.”
There should be a citizen-led, independent redistricting process in every state, he added.
The term “gerrymandering” has roots dating back to the early 1800s.
A governor named Elbridge Gerry signed a bill in 1812 redrawing a district that heavily favored the Democratic-Republican Party. Some thought it looked like a salamander.
Thus, a new portmanteau was born.
A newspaper called the wavy confines of the district “The Gerry-mander,” complete with a cartoon illustration that gave the “horrid Monster” some Jabberwocky-like qualities: wings, claws and sharp teeth.
Our question: Which state's redrawn district map led to the creation of “gerrymandering”?
Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
Last week, we asked: Which U.S. president signed the law that created NASA?
The answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act in 1958, which established NASA as a new agency. The act separated U.S. spaceflight rocket development into a civilian agency, paving the way for the space race.
Congratulations to our winners: Bruce R. Parker and Barry Weinstein!
Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
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