On the eve of Florida’s first execution of 2026, churches and people of faith across Florida are speaking out against the death penalty, an issue they feel stands in opposition to their religious and moral beliefs.

“We are gathering to say that state sanctioned executions are wrong on many levels, and as persons of faith we urge restorative justice rather than vengeance,” Rev. Laurie Hafner, senior pastor of Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ said Monday.

At a press conference in front of her Coral Gables church, Hafner and other advocates from the national group Death Penalty Action, launched a Florida campaign encouraging people of faith to speak out in opposition to the death penalty.

After they spoke, the small group, who held signs that read “Thou shall not kill!,” tolled a historic bell — the same one used ahead of Delaware executions before the state abolished the death penalty — in solidarity with those on death row.

Hafner said her denomination, United Church of Christ, has opposed the death penalty since 1969.

“Our faith is rooted in a God of restorative justice, not retribution,” she said. “We follow a teacher who himself, was a victim of state sanctioned execution, and who in his final moments offered forgiveness and challenged us to choose a different path.”

Hafner was joined by advocate SueZann Bosler, who spoke about why — as the daughter of a murder victim — she does not support the death penalty.

“Why, Governor DeSantis, why do you execute people who kill people to show us Floridians that killing people is wrong?” she said.

In 1986 Bosler’s father, Rev. Billy Bosler, was stabbed to death in his home in Opa-Locka. SueZann Bosler was also stabbed six times by the same man, but survived the attack. After the murderer was caught and convicted, Bosler worked for over a decade to save him from getting the death sentence.

Bosler said that as a minister, her father, who she describes as a “very peaceful man,” was opposed to capital punishment, and once told her that if he were ever murdered he would not want his killer to receive the death penalty.

“It’s obvious to me that the church and my dad’s Christian teachings taught him about the death penalty. That is wrong. It is not an eye for an eye,” said Bosler who is the co-founder the nonprofit Journey of Hope from Violence to Healing.

Monday’s press conference is a part of a larger advocacy campaign, called “For Whom the Bells Toll” which encourages religious communities across the country to speak out against capital punishment. The project invites people of faith to host vigils for those being executed and churches to toll their bells on execution days, an action that pays homage to a long-held tradition of tolling a bell outside prisons at the time of executions.

Similar actions are taking place this week in churches across Florida — including Catholic, Lutheran and Baptist churches in Winter Park, Orlando, Jacksonville and other Florida cities.

Florida ramps up executions

The statewide protests come at a time when Florida is ramping up executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The first execution of 2026 — that of Ronald Heath, 64, convicted of killing a traveling salesman in Gainesville back in 1989 — is set for Tuesday at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Fla. There are three executions scheduled for 2026 so far.

Last year, Florida nearly doubled the national average of executions with a record-breaking 19 executions carried out. Texas is the only other state that has ever exceeded 18 exe­cu­tions in a year’s span, doing so back in 2009.

The average age of Florida’s executed inmates was 60, and the bulk of the crimes occurred in the 1980s and ‘90s, according to the Herald’s review of execution data.

DeSantis said in November that the record number of executions was due to “victims’ families that are wanting to see justice” and him “doing my part to deliver that.”

“We have lengthy reviews and appeals that I think should be shorter,” DeSantis said. “I still have a responsibility to look at these cases and to be sure that the person’s guilty. And if I honestly thought somebody wasn’t, I would not pull the trigger on it.”

Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action and co-founder of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said at Monday’s press conference that the campaign also asks churches to pray for the victims and their families.

“I want to make sure that it’s very, very clear that we remember the victims,” Bonowitz said, adding that he believes the death penalty is worse for the victim’s families, because of how it delays the healing process.

“When we tell the victim family, wait until we kill the guy, and then you’ll feel better, what we’re asking them to do is put their healing process on hold.”

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