Corresponding with the Dead: Lessons on Capital Punishment from Beyond the Grave

The 5,000+ members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” of which I am co-founder, occasionally receive posthumous letters from the condemned individuals with whom we correspond. The latest example came just this past week, when it seemed William Reaves, Jr. was reaching out from the grave to write to me. William was a 77-year-old born-again Christian Vietnam veteran who had PTSD. He was convicted of first-degree murder in the September 1986 shooting death of Indian River County sheriff’s deputy Richard Rudy Raczkoski, Z’L (of blessed memory).

On October 20th, Florida’s death chamber curtain went up promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time with Reaves already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm. When asked if he had any last words, he replied, “No, I do not.” The state killing proceeded on schedule and he was pronounced dead at 6:12 pm. That was not the end, however. William still had words yet to be heard – sentiments that were flying on proverbial angels’ wings across North America while the poison filled his veins.

It feels synchronous that this veritable danse macabre occurred just ahead of the Halloween season so many around the world observe, including All Hallow’s Eve, Día de los Muertos, and Samhain, when many believe the veil between this world and what may come is so very thin. Below is a brief account of how this timely saga unfolded. I offer it here in the hope that it will open the hearts and minds of individuals the world over to the true-to-life horror show that capital punishment’s so-called “machinery of death” presents to the world, not only on Halloween, but every single day.

My Letter to William:

As has been L’chaim’s protocol since its founding in 2020, members reached out to William the day he received his death warrant, which in his case was September 18, 2026. That warrant informed him that the state would kill him on October 20.  (States vary from weeks to months in terms of duration between the issuing of a death warrant and the killing date. Florida has expedited their process during their recent execution spree, giving roughly one month’s notice to the human beings to whom it sends their death letter.)

Upon hearing this news, I myself sent the following excerpted message that same day to William on his prison tablet:

“Shalom Aleichem (Peace unto you) Mr. Reaves,

I pray this email finds you at peace as much as possible. My name is Chaplain Michael Zoosman. I am an ordained member of the Jewish clergy (a Cantor) and a former prison chaplain. I am also the co-founder of the group “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty.”

I write to you on behalf of the 5,000+ members of our group internationally and across Florida – and on behalf of all CIVILIZED HUMANITY – to ask most sincerely for your forgiveness that we are allowing your state to try to murder you on October 20. We just got word of this awful news.

We stand 100% against the death penalty. I am a third-generation Holocaust survivor. My grandmother recently passed at ~100 years old and was a survivor of the Holocaust. Lethal injection, which Florida uses to murder people, was first implemented in our world by the Nazis as part of their Aktion T4 protocol to kill people they believed were “unworthy of life,” as designed by Dr. Karl Brandt, the personal physician of Adolf Hitler. Every time lethal injection is used on a human being, it continues the Nazi legacy of death and killing. It is a DIRECT slap in the face of Jews EVERYWHERE. It CANNOT STAND!

Our group is called “L’chaim,” which means “to life.” We stand by the words of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel (1928-2016). He famously said of capital punishment:

“Death should never be the answer in a civilized society.”

And:

“With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.”

Receiving William’s Reply Posthumously:

Certain killing states allow individuals on death row to respond via messages, while other particularly heinous ones like Florida do not. The latter take away the tablets of the individuals whom they put on Death Watch, which is the term for the isolation and suicide watch in which they place the condemned. Those states print out the messages that individuals like the members of L’chaim send to those  condemned to die. That format is how William received my letter above. Even restrictive states like Florida, however, still mercifully allow individuals to handwrite letters in response, and for this reason L’chaim members always put a return address on our initial message. I did so in my message to William, and he was able to write back to me in a letter postmarked Sept. 23.

I live across the continent from Florida, however, in western Canada. As a result, his letter’s journey took weeks to arrive, surpassing in duration his remaining days in this world. His missive arrived on my doorstep on October 23, three days after the Sunshine State unceremoniously removed his light from the Earth.

Below is the message that William seemed to send me from the grave that Friday afternoon, just as I was heading into Shabbat – the Jewish Sabbath. He wrote it in clear print on a page adorned with “Thank you!!”s in the corners:

“Shalom, Mr. Zoosman,

First, I’d like to think [sic]  you for contacting me. Your kind words are heart-warming and uplifting, all be it not the Holocaust, that was a horrible time for the Jews, and still is because of the mental scars of anguish. I know of scars of the mental part of man being a veteran of the Vietnam War. I suffer from PTSD, which was not presented properly in my case. I have been on this journey for 40 years tomorrow. Have ask Jesus (Yeshua) to be Lord and Savior. I truly believe he has received me, like you stated from your letter that there are many around the globe that has me before the throne of God. And will you PLEASE give those 5000 of your group my deepest heartfelt thank yous. So in closing l, I thank Go[d] for you. You have visited a stranger as Jesus state. You visited a born-again believer. Bless your heart. Thanks for your support through your prayers.

Barauch HaAshem Adonai (sure hope I got that right)

Bless is He who comes in the name of the LORD.

Shalom my brother.

With Special Regards,

Brother Reaves”

Lessons from our Correspondence:

As per William’s wish, I shared his message with all L’chaim members. I then reviewed my communications with William. When it comes to individuals in repressive states like Florida, L’chaim members often do not send follow-up messages, as we know they cannot respond except by regular mail. In this case, however, I did. Ronnie Clark, a Jewish individual with whom I have corresponded for years on Florida death row (as he is not on Death Watch), asked me if I could send a message to William. On October 11, I did so, conveying Ronnie’s words, which were:

“Send William Reaves my love. Tell that brother that his friendship meant a lot to me! And that I wish I could take his place.”

I will never know if William received Ronnie’s message. I do believe, however, that the world can learn from that message, as well as from what in many ways ended up serving as Williams’s final testament in his posthumous letter to me. Our correspondence demonstrates what L’chaim members, together with all of civilized humanity, realize: individuals on death row have often committed horrible crimes, but they are not monsters. L’chaim has underscored this point in a recent essay the Jerusalem Post published about my correspondence with Christa Pike in Tennessee throughout her torturous, botched execution saga. That abomination, like all executions, reveals yet another inherent truth: that a society that condemns a human being to death condemns itself infinitely more.

It is crucial that the world hear the voices of individuals like Christa and William, and countless others condemned to die. For L’chaim members, it is particularly vital for citizens of the United States, whose federal and (many) state governments kill in their names, and Israelis, whose legislators have voted recently to do the very same.

The messages of the condemned can never replace the words of their victims, whose voices their killers stripped from the world. Yet, they can serve a reminder to us not to continue the cycle of violence and killing by doing the very same to them.

May the abiding neshama/spirit of Corporal Richard Rudy Raczkoski, Z’L, along with all victims of murder, be a loving guide for all who knew him.

May his loved ones be comforted among all the mourners of the world.

May no more blood be shed in his sacred name.

May all the killings end.

–

Cantor Michael J. Zoosman, MSM, BCC​

Jewish Prison Chaplain​

Co-Founder: L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty

​Advisory Committee Member: Death Penalty Action