Frank Atwood, Who Was Tonsured a Monk With the Name Ephraim, Has Been Executed

June 8, 2022

Source: Mystagogy

    

It was confirmed not long ago that Frank Atwood was executed this morning by the State of Arizona through lethal injection. Atwood was sedated at 10:10 a.m. and was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m., media witnesses said. He was 66 years old, having been sentenced in 1987 for the kidnapping and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Pima County, Vicki Lynne Hoskinson. Frank maintained his innocence till the end.

“Today marks final justice for our daughter Vicki Lynne. Our family has waited 37 years, eight months and 22 days for this day to come,” Debbie Carlson, Vicki Lynne's mother, said while choking back tears during the media briefing following the execution. “Vicki was a vibrant little girl with an infectious laugh and a smile that would melt your heart.”

According to Frank Strada, Arizona Department of Corrections director, this is Frank Atwood's final statement, first addressing Elder Paisios from the nearby Saint Anthony's Monastery who accompanied him to his execution:

“Thank you, precious Father, for coming today and shepherding me into faith. I want to thank my beautiful wife who has loved me with everything she has. I want to thank my friends and legal team, and most of all, Jesus Christ through this unfair judicial process that led to my salvation. I pray the Lord will have mercy on all of us and that the Lord will have mercy on me.”

… Read the rest at Mystagogy.

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6/8/2022

See also
A Final Correspondence Between Anthony (Frank) Atwood and Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos Before His Execution A Final Correspondence Between Anthony (Frank) Atwood and Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos Before His Execution A Final Correspondence Between Anthony (Frank) Atwood and Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos Before His Execution A Final Correspondence Between Anthony (Frank) Atwood and Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos Before His Execution
Metropolitan Athanasios told me that if God permits my execution, He has accepted my repentance, and I am ready to leave for Paradise. Prayer for an Orthodox Christian Convert on Death Row Soon to be Executed Prayer for an Orthodox Christian Convert on Death Row Soon to be Executed Prayer for an Orthodox Christian Convert on Death Row Soon to be Executed Prayer for an Orthodox Christian Convert on Death Row Soon to be Executed
Frank has recently issued the following statement prior to his upcoming execution by lethal injection. Let us all pray for him, at his request, and the request of the Metropolitans.
Comments
Alexis Ross6/24/2022 12:24 am
I am tired of hearing that we don’t know if he was guilty or not. He was found guilt because if the evidence. DNA wasn’t even in its infancy yet. Not finding any evidence in the car means nothing. A vacuum and some soap and water would have taken away any evidence. This man was made to be a martyr. By my church. The same Church that paid all of his legal fees. Decades of appeals . I wonder why he wasn’t supported by any innocence projects? Because he was guilty. Married a woman with classic symptoms to fall in love with a murderer she couldn’t even touch. Alcoholic abusive mother snd passive father. My heart continues to break for the innocent little girl who undoubtedly was raped before she was murdered snd whose body was left to rot in the desert sun.
Ioann6/20/2022 8:32 pm
Alex- Re: Abba Moses: "On one occasion when the brethren were sitting with Abba Moses, he said to them, 'Behold, this day has the ‎barbarians come to Scete; rise up and flee.' And they said to him, 'Will you not flee, father? He said to them, 'I ‎have been expecting this day to come for many years past, so that might be fulfilled the command of our Redeemer, ‎‎'Those who take by the sword shall perish by the sword’” (St. Matthew xxvi, 52).
Alex6/19/2022 12:55 am
Marc and Ella, Orthodoxy is about repentance. Orthodoxy does not say "once a pedophile always a pedophile" or "once a murderer always a murderer". Saint Moses the Ethiopian was a murderer, adulterer and a robber and transformed through the power of repentance into a Desert Father and a martyr-saint. What is worse than sin is not repenting. Who are we to judge? Hating our brother equals murder and looking at a woman with lust equals commiting adultery in the heart. Orthodoxy is about being transformed and restored.
Jesse Dominick 6/14/2022 9:20 am
Olga, there are actually several well-known monasteries in Arizona. In particular, the monastery in this story is known throughout the world. Further, Mystagogy is one of the oldest and most respected English-language Orthodox blogs. And the word itself should be no problem: St. Photios the Great has his famous work, "The Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit."
Devin Snow6/13/2022 6:20 pm
Yes there is an Orthodox monastery in Arizona, there are actually 3 . One in Phoenix, St Anthony the Great, one in Florence , St Anthony and one in Safford, St Paisius.
Olga6/13/2022 3:30 am
I don't know of any Orthodox monastery in Arizona. This is sounds like fiction. Something with a name like Mystagogy doesn't sound like a reliable source either. Oh, well, anyone can post anything on the web, true or not.
Benjamin6/13/2022 1:53 am
If he actually did commit the crimes, I hope he would've confessed to them, even if just prior to his execution. At that point, there's really no reason not to
Matrona6/11/2022 6:01 pm
Memory eternal!
Marc Manolache6/10/2022 4:16 am
With all due respect, we simply do not and cannot know definitively whether or not he was guilty. There's evidence both for and against his guilt. I've seen the evidence on his website for his supposed innocence but I'm not convinced one way or the other. The bumper was simply too blurry to properly assess. 1.5 hrs is plenty of time to dig a small, shallow grave—especially when you're high on drugs and have the adrenaline of recently committed murder flowing through your veins. To say you know for certain he was innocent is reckless. To use religious platforms to shove your private opinion down peoples' throats is so inappropriate and scandalous. You are setting stumbling blocks for your fellow man. It is not the business of the Church to interfere with homicide investigations! That is for the secular authorities to decide. We are not judges, jurors, or forensic scientists! Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's (i.e. secular justice). The fact that the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously found him guilty says a lot. The fact that not a single American bishop has spoken out in his favor is very telling. The only bishops who back him are two bishops from Cyprus (thousands of miles outside their canonical territory) who don't speak English fluently. I'll bet you all they know about him is what he personally told them. I doubt those Cypriot bishops ever met with the victim's family to hear their side of the story. Even before the murder, this man was a convicted pedophile and druggie. He sodomized an 8-year-old boy and raped a 14 year-old-girl. That in and of itself could be considered worthy of death, so perhaps this is God's way of correcting previous legal injustice. He's hardly "innocent" and should've been locked up regardless. The fact that he got death instead of life in prison is hardly the "huge miscarriage of justice" that people make it out to be. Both are pretty bad and some may argue death is better than being confined to a small concrete block in a wheelchair. The fact that Orthodox Christians are judging and accusing their coreligionists of being "cold-hearted" simply because they find it hard to believe the FBI flew this dude's bumper across state lines to plant fake evidence and hired a bunch of fake witnesses to falsely testify against him is ridiculous and unfair. How can you fault normal people for being skeptical of this unprovable conspiracy theory? How is it that you give the benefit of the doubt to a sexual predator but not the civil authorities established by God? All because he convinced the monks at St. Anthony's to take his side? Those monks are not infallible. They make mistakes. Especially in regards to complex worldly matters. None of those monks are homicide detectives. But as St. John Chrysostom said, "It is better to err by excess of mercy than by excess of severity."
Antiochene Son6/9/2022 7:29 pm
Ella appears not to believe in the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit. That is blasphemy in my book. And there have been many monks who were married and agreed to separate from their spouses to become monks. Anyway, the death penalty as administered in this country is evil, and in particular this case, which seems to have been a witch hunt from the start.
Victoria Lynne Heim6/9/2022 2:03 pm
There is also Justice for the murdered soul of Vicki Lynne.
Jesse Dominick 6/9/2022 1:49 pm
We don't know the man and can't say if he's guilty or not. But if he is, isn't that all the more reason that he's in need of prayer?
Ella Matthews4c226/9/2022 12:37 pm
He is a married monk. He is Anthony. He is Ephraim. He is a pedophile. Period. The church and its media need to clean up their acts.
Nicolae Tinca6/9/2022 11:57 am
Dumnezeu să-l odihnească!
ROBERT BULAKOWSKI 6/9/2022 12:29 am
There is no justice taking a life for a life. True justice manifests itself in forgiveness. Forgiveness frees our heart from the eternal burden of revenge and wrongdoing.
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