Despite newfound backing from John Bel Edwards, effort to abolish death penalty fails again

For the fifth time in six years, state lawmakers have rejected an effort to abolish the state’s death penalty, despite newfound support for the effort from term-limited Gov. John Bel Edwards and testimony from former death row inmates who were later freed.

The House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday voted 11- 4, largely along party lines, to shelve House Bill 228 by Rep. Kyle Green, D-Marrero. The bill would have forbidden death sentences in a state that has not put someone to death since 2010.

Republicans on the committee sided with prosecutors, Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office and others who argued people who commit murder deserve to die, and that abolishing the death sentence would encourage more heinous crimes.

The vote marks the end of an effort by Edwards, a Democrat often aligned with law enforcement, to abolish the death penalty as his tenure comes to a close. Edwards, who has cited Catholic beliefs in opposing abortion rights, had not previously made his stance on the death penalty known, but he came out against it earlier this year and announced he was backing Green’s bill.

Lawmakers from both parties have tried for years to abolish the death penalty in Louisiana, bringing bills nearly every year since 2017. The proposals have garnered some support, but have never come close to passing.

Catholic leaders, criminal justice advocates and others have long argued that the practice is immoral and ineffective. The death penalty has fallen increasingly out of favor since the late 1990s across the country, and more than half of states don’t allow the death penalty. And it’s costly for states; defendants facing the death penalty are guaranteed more state resources as they appeal. A person being tried for capital punishment today would cost taxpayers about $281 million and would live on death row for about 20 years, according to an analysis by William P. Quigley, a Loyola University law professor.

But prosecutors and some families of murder victims have led the charge against the effort to abolish the death penalty, arguing that the penalty serves justice.

In committee testimony, Green called the death penalty “barbaric” and pointed to data showing racial disparities that put Black people on death row more often. He also pointed out that several death row inmates have been exonerated.

“Are we really willing to perpetuate a system that is inherently flawed and biased?” Green said.

Louisiana hasn’t executed anyone since 2010, when an offender waived his appeals, and has struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs. Since 2000, nine death row inmates have been exonerated and two have been executed.

Shareef Cousin, who became one of the youngest people sent to death row after being arrested for murder in New Orleans at age 16, pleaded with the committee to pass Green’s bill. The Supreme Court found prosecutors mishandled Cousin’s case, and his conviction was tossed before he was paroled for an unrelated sentence in 2005.

“Ask yourselves, if any one of your children was put in a position where they were accused of something they did not commit, what would your position be?” he said.

But prosecutors described several heinous murders and argued that the offenders deserved to die for their crimes. Tony Clayton, district attorney for West Baton Rouge Parish, argued abolishing the practice would embolden would-be murderers. He suggested lawmakers consider allowing the state to execute people using a firing squad.

“Don’t take that from us,” he said. “It works.”

John Sinquefield, deputy attorney general for Landry, said Louisiana would become a “magnet for pedophile killers” if the penalty was done away with.

“The crime would have to be so horrific that every one of us would have to agree not only in guilt…(but) that the sentence should be death,” said Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville. “It would have to be that horrible. That’s a very high bar to reach.”

House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, a Republican running for secretary of state, moved the committee further to the right this session by rearranging the members to install Republicans more aligned with law enforcement.