Beware the Avenger Executing Wrath

“Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.” – Leonardo da Vinci

During my 35-year prison ministry career, I have had the privilege of ministering to men on death row in two different states. Florida State Prison in Starke is a maximum-security prison and so is Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina. At FSP, one of our team members met the wife of serial killer David Gore in the visitor’s waiting room and became pen pals with him for several years before his eventual execution.

Speaking of serial killers, I met David Berkowitz, the notorious “Son of Sam”, several times at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg NY when he was incarcerated there. David, who is now a born-again Christian, would come out to watch our softball team play against the inmate squad and we would chat during batting practice. He has since been transferred to the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

Meanwhile, at Broad River, my friend Chaplain Larry Lilly and I were required to wear a cumbersome flak jacket and a helmet with a face shield while ministering to the men on death row to protect us because they were known to throw food and even feces at both guards and visitors.

As much as I love ministering to prisoners – and, like the Apostle Paul, consider myself to be the “chief of sinners” – I am still a hardliner on crime. And yes, I also support the death penalty for cases of premeditated murder.

Do you know who else does? David Berkowitz! David has told me that he believes he deserved to be executed for his crimes, but instead he was declared criminally insane and sentenced to life in prison. “God has shown me mercy and I don’t deserve mercy,” he told me the last time I saw him.

Just this week, the Florida State Senate passed SB156, also known as the Officer Jason Raynor Act, by a 31-4 vote. This legislation, if also passed by the State House and signed by Gov. DeSantis, will raise the minimum penalty for manslaughter in the death of a police officer to life in prison without parole. That’s a pretty stiff sentence, but I think it is 100% warranted.

“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister; an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” Romans 13:3-4 (NKJV)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President