Florida Catholic | Death Penalty

Up close to the death penalty

Couple with years of experience ministering to the condemned and their families will speak about the death penalty Oct. 27 in Sarasota.

KRISTIE NGUYEN | FLORIDA CATHOLIC VENICE BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 10.19.07

Dale and Susan Recinella will present "Catholic Teaching and the Realities of the American Death Penalty," firsthand accounts of life on Florida's death row Oct. 27, at 1:30 p.m. at the Bishop Nevins Academy (St. Martha School). The school is located at 4380 Fruitville Road, Sarasota. For more information or to register call: diocesan Respect Life Department at 941-441-1112.

RESOURCES
CLICK HERE

VENICE | Dale and Susan Recinella live 15 miles from the correctional institution and prison where hundreds of men await execution and others die for their crimes.

For nearly 10 years, the couple has ministered to inmates on Florida's death row and those in solitary confinement, as well as to families affected by the death penalty. The couple will reveal realities of the American death penalty Oct. 27 during a presentation at Bishop Nevins Academy in Sarasota. The event is the last in a series of talks they have given in all the state's dioceses as part of the Florida bishops' campaign against the death penalty.

Dale Recinella is a lawyer and Catholic lay chaplain for inmates awaiting execution and those in solitary confinement. He spends days going cell to cell, talking, praying and bringing Communion to them. When a condemned inmate asks Recinella to be his spiritual adviser, Recinella meets with the man regularly before the execution, then later witnesses the death. Recinella is also author of the book, "The Biblical Truth About America's Death Penalty," which explores why Scripture does not support capital punishment.

His wife, Susan, a psychologist, works at a state mental hospital with severely mentally ill women. She focuses her prison ministry efforts on the families of the executed.

The couple lives in Macclenny, about 30 miles west of Jacksonville and three miles south of the Georgia border. Four hundred men await execution at Union Correctional Institution in the nearby town of Raiford. Executions take place at Florida State Prison, next to the correctional institution, Dale Recinella said. The state also has 2,500 men in long-term, solitary confinement.

The couple got involved in prison ministry when they were living in Tallahassee in 1990. Dale Recinella became a volunteer chaplain at a large men's prison, where he served as a prayer partner for the inmates. Eight years later, the couple began ministering in northeast Florida to those on death row.

"When we became intimately involved in the process of the death penalty … we felt it was very important to bring other people up close to this by sharing with them our experiences," Dale Recinella said. "I will share the experience of being on death row as a minister and going through the week of an execution, and Susan will share her experiences of ministering to the families, of being with the mother, the brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren during the execution."

The couple also separately ministers to family members of murder victims.

"We will share the surprising things we've learned from experiencing both sides of these tragic crimes," Dale Recinella said.

During their Oct. 27 presentation, the two will discuss myths about the death penalty.

"One of best kept secrets in the U.S. is that it costs a lot more money to execute someone than it does to keep them in prison at the highest level of security for the rest of their natural life," Dale Recinella said. "We do have the technology and the know-how to keep people in prison for the rest of their lives and to protect society without killing them."

They will also focus on the church's stand against the death penalty.

"We are tragically turning to violence in the search for quick and easy answers to complex human problems," the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in a 1994 statement. "We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing."

Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1995 encyclical, "The Gospel of Life," that "the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society."

Hundreds have come to the Recinellas' talks. Many were eager to ask questions about Florida's death row.

"The question (sessions) have gone as long as the presentations because people want to know the facts," Dale Recinella said.

A couple whose son was murdered attended one of the presentations.

"The mother did not want the death penalty (but) the father did," he said. "It provided an incredible and very intimate opportunity to explore with the audience what the church offers as the path to healing after something horrible like this happens to a family."

Recinella said he and his wife encourage people to attend their presentation "because they're going to hear firsthand things they've never heard before anyplace else. God brought Susan and me up close to the death penalty to the place where it's done. So when we share these experiences, these are going to be things that people have not heard about before, and they will be able to ask their questions."

Return to Diocese of Venice Front Page

Up close to the death penalty

Couple with years of experience ministering to the condemned and their families will speak about the death penalty Oct. 27 in Sarasota.

Other Stories