• Urgent Action

Urgent Action: EXECUTION SET AFTER 32 YEARS ON DEATH ROW (USA: UA 16.23)

February 7, 2023

The State of Florida is scheduled to execute Donald Dillbeck on 23 February 2023. Now aged 60, he was sentenced to death in 1991 after only eight jurors voted for the death penalty under a law since found unconstitutional. His lawyers are seeking recognition that his neurobehavioral disorder is akin to intellectual disability and should exempt him from execution under constitutional law. They also maintain that the prosecution’s use of his prior conviction for murder to support the death penalty is undermined by new evidence that reveals more mitigating than aggravating factors than the original jury heard in this regard.

TAKE ACTION:
  1. Please take action as-soon-as possible. This Urgent Action expires on February 23, 2023.
  2. Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to the government official listed below. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
  3. Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 16.23. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.
CONTACT INFORMATION Office of Governor Ron DeSantis State of Florida The Capitol 400 S. Monroe St. Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001, USA Email: https://www.flgov.com/email-the-governor/ SAMPLE LETTER Dear Governor DeSantis, Donald Dillbeck is scheduled to be executed in Florida on 23 February. He was sentenced to death in 1991 after the jury voted 8-4 for the death penalty. That sentencing scheme was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 2016. Donald Dillbeck is among those to whom that ruling does not apply, not because of the facts of their cases, but the timing of them. As one Florida Supreme Court Justice said, this left constitutional protection depending on “little more than a roll of the dice.” Since trial, Donald Dillbeck has been diagnosed with Neurobehavioral Disorder Associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (ND-PAE). His adaptive and cognitive deficits have been described by medical experts as “functionally identical” to the criteria that the US Supreme Court recognized in 2002 as requiring exemption from execution of people with intellectual disability. I urge you to grant Donald Dillbeck a reprieve and to work to ensure his death sentence is commuted. Yours sincerely, [YOUR NAME] ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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