For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Faith Leaders Criticize Nevada Board of Pardons Failure to Hold a Clemency Hearing for Zane Floyd, a Marine Corps Veteran with PTSD and Brain Damage Due to Fetal Alcohol Exposure;
Urge Board to Hold a Clemency Hearing Without Delay
VIRTUAL PRESS CONFERENCE: Thursday, September 23rd at 4PM PT
NEVADA — Faith leaders from across Nevada will hold a virtual press conference to express their deep disappointment that the Nevada Board of Pardons Commissioners failed to hold a clemency hearing this week for Zane Floyd, a Marine Corps veteran diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who faces execution this fall. The Board met on Tuesday, September 21, but did not include Mr. Floyd on their agenda. The faith leaders are gathering virtually on Thursday, September 23rd at 4PM PT to urge the Board to hold a clemency hearing for Mr. Floyd as soon as possible. Evidence of Mr. Floyd’s brain damage due to FASD and his PTSD, as well as expert testimony about his young age at the time of the crime, was never presented to the jury that sentenced him to die.
WHAT: Faith Leaders Hold Virtual Press Conference in Support of Clemency for Zane Floyd
WHEN: Thursday, September 23rd at 4PM PT
WHO: Emma Tacke, Catholic Mobilizing Network; Rita Sloan, Life, Peace and Justice Commission, Catholic Diocese of Reno; Pastor Ender Austin III, Faith In Action Nevada; Canon Catherine Gregg, The Episcopal Diocese of Nevada; Mercedes Maharis, Nevada Chaplain; Reverend Karen Foster, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada; Rabbi Benjamin Zober, Temple Sinai, Reno (statement)
READ THE FULL CLEMENCY PETITION HERE:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16UrxGAtNF8LmROPdB5gddwqn7Svxfais/view?usp=sharing
WATCH THE CLEMENCY VIDEO HERE: https://vimeo.com/556318108
In partnership with the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, religious leaders will come together, compelled by their diverse faith traditions to express disappointment and frustration with the Nevada Board of Pardons. “It is an outrage that the Pardons Board has failed to consider Mr. Floyd’s clemency plea despite substantial mitigating evidence that was never heard by a jury. Mr. Floyd should never have been sentenced to the death penalty due to his organic brain damage from FASD, which is functionally equivalent to an intellectual disability,” commented Nancy Hart, NVCADP President.
The Rev’d. Canon Catherine Gregg, speaking on behalf of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, chastised the Board’s inaction, “Man was created in God’s image so his divine wisdom and capacity for mercy and compassion is in every one of us. I implore the Board of Pardons to stop Mr. Floyd’s execution and to embrace mercy and the dignity of every human life. If there was ever a case for mercy, this is it.”
“This situation is a very sad commentary on who we have become as a society,” said Reverend Karen Foster, “I appeal to the humanity and compassion in each of us. What Mr. Floyd needs is treatment, human connection, kindness and compassion. The death penalty for someone with PTSD and FASD is appalling. THIS is how we want to treat our veterans who serve their country? The jury never had the benefit of all of the information. We can do better than this.”
“God is love, not state punishment unto death. Are our leaders broadcasting, ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’ why? Zane Floyd, a disabled human being, deserves loving clemency,” said Mercedes Maharis, Nevada Chaplain.
