“I want to say I’m sorry for having taken Roxann and Anthony away from you. I can’t imagine the pain I’ve caused you.”
These were the last words of Cedric Allan Ricks, spoken with a voice cracked by tears, as he lay on the execution gurney in Texas. On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at 6:55 p.m. local time, he died by lethal injection. He was guilty of a very serious crime, and he knew it. He had said so at the trial, in his letters, until his last breath.
But in thirteen years on death row, that man had changed. Barbara, Linda, and Carmen knew it. These italian citizens who, through the Community of Sant’Egidio’s campaign, had begun writing to him and had built, letter after letter, a true friendship with him. He had written to Linda shortly before his end, quoting the prophet Nehemiah: “I too have a wall before
me. I don’t ask God to pull me out, but to give me the strength to finish the race. Let us thank God that for He can see the best in us, while everyone else sees only the worst.”
Cedric Ricks is the sixth person murdered in the United States since the beginning of 2026. No state should have had the power to snuff out that reborn life.
Thank you for the thousands of appeals you’ve sent. They help our collective conscience remember that every life is sacred.
A life saved in Alabama
In these same days, a few hundred miles away, a very different story unfolded. Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton, 75, confined to a wheelchair, was awaiting his execution scheduled for Thursday, March 12, in Alabama. He had spent over thirty years on death row for a murder committed in 1991 —a murder in which he participated, but did not fire the fatal shot. He was
outside the store when one of his accomplices killed Douglas Battle during
a robbery.
On Tuesday, less than 48 hours before the execution, Republican Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence into life in prison. “It would be unfair to execute one of the participants in the crime while the one who pulled the trigger is not equally sentenced,” she said. The shooter, Derrick DeBruce, had already had his sentence reduced to life in prison in
2014 and died in prison in 2020.
Charles cried when he learned of the decision. “All he can say is thank you. It doesn’t seem like enough. But that’s all I can give,” he said through his lawyer.
This is only the second time in nearly nine years in office that Ivey has commuted a death sentence. In Alabama, fewer than half of 1 percent of those sentenced to death have ever been granted clemency.
The Duckett Case: When DNA Can Change Everything Meanwhile
Another crucial chapter opens in Florida. James Duckett, a 68-year-old former police officer, has been on death row since 1988, being convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee. His execution is scheduled for March 31, 2026.
The trial relied largely on circumstantial evidence: tire tracks, PDAs on the patrol car, and the account of a witness who later recanted. Duckett has always maintained his innocence. On March 6, the Lake County Court granted the defense’s request to proceed with new DNA tests on biological material found on the victim’s clothing.
The DNA tests “are expected to be completed by March 18, 2026,” after which the court will determine whether a further hearing is necessary. The Florida Supreme Court has suspended the procedural calendar pending the results.
His lawyer argue that the DNA analysis techniques available today didn’t exist at the time of the original trial and that the results could overturn the entire conviction. This is our hope.
Not in our name
Cedric asked for forgiveness. Charles thanked for saving his life. James waits for science to speak before it’s too late.
Three different stories, one certainty: the death penalty gives nothing back, not to the victims, not to justice, not to society. It only brings more pain.
The Community of Sant’Egidio stands by all these stories, as it has for fifty years stood by those at risk of death at the hands of the State. Because every life—and we reiterate, EVERY LIFE—is sacred and inviolable.