Bishop says priest's killer should not receive death penalty

Published: 2004-01-07

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (CNS) -- Proclaiming that God is the only one who has the right to take human life, Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski of Metuchen told members of a local parish that the man charged with the murder of their former pastor, Father Florian J. Gall, should not receive the death penalty if convicted. Father Gall, who had served for nearly 20 years in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Whitehouse Station, and had been the episcopal vicar for Hunterdon County since 2001, was one of as many as 40 people allegedly murdered by 43-year-old registered nurse Charles Cullen of Bethlehem, Pa. Cullen is charged with giving Father Gall a fatal dose of digoxin, a medication that slows the heart rate. Father Gall died June 28 of heart failure in Somerset Medical Center, where Cullen was working at the time.

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