Bishops urge Governor DeSantis to stay the executions of Mark Geralds and Frank Walls

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops (FCCB) has asked Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay two executions scheduled to take place this month. Mark Geralds is scheduled to be executed on December 9, 2025, for the 1989 murder of Tressa Lynn Pettibone. Frank Walls is scheduled for execution on December 18, 2025, for the murder of Ann Peterson in 1987. 

In separate letters to DeSantis on behalf of Geralds and Walls, Michael Sheedy, FCCB executive director, called on the governor to halt the two executions and commute both sentences to life without parole. Sheedy recognized the duty of the state to punish the offenders for their grave crimes yet pleaded with the governor to spare their lives. 

“To punish with lifelong imprisonment is not to minimize the heinousness of [their] crime[s],” wrote Sheedy. “It is rather to recognize with awe that God is the author of life, and to reserve to him the taking of human life except where it is otherwise impossible to maintain the common good.”

The Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty attacks the inviolability of the human person. Life-long incarceration without the possibility of parole is a severe yet more humane punishment that recognizes the inherent dignity of the guilty person while also ensuring societal safety.

Catholic faithful and members of the community will gather in multiple locations across Florida to pray for the condemned men, for the families of their victims, and for DeSantis as he considers the request to stay the executions.

Full text of letters to DeSantis:
•    Please stay the execution of Mark Geralds and commute his sentence
•    Please stay the execution of Frank Walls and commute his sentence