Florida Catholic | Busload of pilgrims protests execution

Busload of pilgrims protests execution

LAURA DODSON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Posted: 09.24.08

DAYTONA BEACH | Forty–eight pilgrims from Our Lady of Grace Parish in Palm Bay and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and Father Lopez High School here boarded a bus the afternoon of Sept. 23 headed to the state death chamber in Starke for a prayer vigil for Richard Henyard.

Henyard was executed that night. He had been convicted of the 1993 murder of two sisters: 7–year–old Jamilyn and 3–year–old Jasmine Lewis.

Sean O’Dell, assistant principal for instruction and a French teacher at Father Lopez, chaperoned three students on the bus for the 90–mile ride from Daytona Beach.

“On the bus, on the way up, one student — unprompted — started us on the rosary, in French, for the victims of violence,” O’Dell said.

Upon arrival, the group gathered in the designated area for death penalty opponents, separated from death penalty supporters by a bank of trees and lots of police.

“A representative of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty spoke about the person to be executed and someone read a letter from Dorothy Lewis, mother of the two girls who (herself) was raped and shot several times and who is now a Christian minister who believes she was healed by the power of prayer,” O’Dell said.

O’Dell recalled that at 6 p.m. there was a pause in the prayer service — the scheduled time of execution. Each person in the group had a chance to strike a bell with a hammer and make a personal statement.

“The bell is very loud and it jars you into the reality of what’s happening. A student commented that ‘it’s so strange to think that we’re standing here praying and someone over there is being killed and a group of people in the “supporter” area is cheering,’” the teacher said.

The group waited for the press to leave, indicating the execution was over. No movement. Around 7 p.m. cell phones began to ring. “We started hearing on our cell phones from others who were watching the news that maybe there was a stay,” O’Dell said.

At 8 p.m. they received the word that the execution was to proceed.

“As we prayed, we watched the white vans of the press corps pull out and drive past us — our signal that it was over,” O’Dell said.

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