Saturday, October 22, 2011

Executed Man Penned Remorseless Letter to Archbishop


Manuel Valle was executed in Florida on September 28.  On October 3, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski received a letter from Valle written a couple of days before his execution, according to the Miami Herald.
In the two-page letter, written out in small, neat script, Valle penned his thoughts about his family, his forthcoming death and being at peace with God.
“I am well, at peace, and prepared for whatever God’s will has in store for me within the next week,” Valle wrote Bishop Wenski, one of several Florida bishops who had asked Governor Rick Scott to spare Valle’s life, reported the Herald.
Valle killed Coral Gables Police Officer Louis Pena, a father of four, after a routine traffic stop on a Sunday afternoon in 1978. After two convictions, three death sentences and countless appeals, the 61-year-old Valle was put to death last month at Florida State Prison. He had spent more than half his life locked up.
Valle’s letter is most striking for what he failed to say: He did not mention Officer Pena, the man he shot and killed. He did not mention Pena’s family. Neither did he neither mention the crime nor repent his actions.
Valle’s final words to Bishop Wenski disgusted Pena’s family.
“As far as I’m concerned, he has no remorse,” said Jeffrey Frau, Pena’s half brother, who got a copy of the letter from a Herald news partner. “He doesn’t care what he’s done to our family. He only cares about himself. “Our lives have been destroyed forever.”

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