Death Penalty Use in Louisiana Has Sharply Declined

Louisiana has seen a steep decline in exe­cu­tions com­pared to pre­vi­ous decades, with only three exe­cu­tions in the last ten years. This is in stark con­trast to the eight men who were elec­tro­cut­ed with­in the span of 11 weeks in 1987, and it fol­lows a nation­wide trend of declin­ing exe­cu­tions and impo­si­tion of death sentences. 

The state’s most recent exe­cu­tion was on January 7, the first since since 2002. The exe­cu­tion occurred only because the defen­dant, Gerard Bordelon, waived appeals that may have tak­en many more years to complete. 

Although there are con­cerns in the state over the time between sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion, many cas­es are reversed because they were not con­duct­ed prop­er­ly in the first place. About half of the state’s cas­es con­sid­ered by fed­er­al judges since 2000 have been sent back to the state court for new tri­als. First Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Killingsworth of Calcasieu Parish said that her office has sought few­er cap­i­tal charges over years, par­tial­ly because of the bur­den it can put on vic­tims’ fam­i­lies when a case is reversed and needs to be retried.

Death sen­tences in Louisana have also declined since 2000.