In 2018, Pope Francis went fur­ther, for­mal­ly declar­ing the death penal­ty ​“inad­mis­si­ble” and revis­ing the Catechism of the Catholic Church to reflect this position. The gov­er­nor told the sher­iffs that death penal­ty appeals take ​“way too long,” and that he was deter­mined to speed up a sys­tem the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic had thrown ​“off its schedule.” Mike DeWine, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor, denounced the death penal­ty in June 2026, acknowl­edg­ing his long-held belief in its val­ue as a deter­rent was not sup­port­ed by evi­dence. The debate over the pace of Florida’s exe­cu­tions comes as the U.S. observes an impor­tant anniver­sary. On August 3, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) broad­cast ​“Florida’s Death Penalty at 50: A Conversation with Those Who Lived, Litigated, and Documented the Birth of the Modern Death Penalty,” mod­er­at­ed by FADP Executive Director Grace Hanna.