---
title: "Decisions Not to Seek Death in Two New Orleans Cases Highlights Louisiana's Trend Away From Capital Punishment"
description: 'The New Orleans District Attorney’s office has decided not to pursue the death penalty in two high-profile murder cases, highlighting a trend in Louisiana…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/decisions-not-to-seek-death-in-two-new-orleans-cases-highlights-louisianas-trend-away-from-capital-punishment'
section: news
date: '2017-06-22T15:01:09-04:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:47:55-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! The **New Orleans** District Attorney's office has decided not to pursue the death penalty in two high-profile murder cases, highlighting a trend in **Louisiana** away from the use of capital punishment. In a one-week period, **Leon Cannizzaro** (pictured), the District Attorney for Orleans Parish, announced that his office would not seek the death penalty against **Travis Boys**, charged with fatally shooting a New Orleans police officer, and **Chelsea Thornton**, charged with killing her 3-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. According to capital defense lawyer Nick Trenticosta, “prosecutors throughout the state are thinking twice about taking a case to trial for the death penalty.” Defense lawyers say that, in New Orleans, District Attorney Cannizzaro's office has been taking note of jury verdicts: one death sentence in 19 years. "New Orleans juries are life-giving people,” Trenticosta said. Assistant DA Christopher Bowan, a spokesperson for the Orleans DA's office, said the office evaluates each prosecution "on a case-by-case basis." In the Boys case, he said, dropping the death penalty would assure a quicker resolution of the case for Officer Daryle Holloway's family. Officer Holloway's mother, Olander Holloway, said, "I just think, at some point in time, this needed to move forward. I think with the death penalty issue, this would've dragged on forever and ever." Bowan did not give a reason for dropping the death penalty against Thornton, who has a long history of mental illness, but noted that Louisiana's prisons do not have a stock of lethal injection drugs and "there's no means for carrying out a capital verdict at this point.” No prisoner has been executed in the state since 2010, when [Gerald Bordelon](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/gerald-bordelon) waived his right to appeal, and the last contested Louisiana execution was in 2002. Since the turn of the century, the state has carried out [three executions](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/views-executions?exec_name_1=&exec_year%5B%5D=2000&exec_year%5B%5D=2001&exec_year%5B%5D=2002&exec_year%5B%5D=2003&exec_year%5B%5D=2004&exec_year%5B%5D=2005&exec_year%5B%5D=2006&exec_year%5B%5D=2007&exec_year%5B%5D=2008&exec_year%5B%5D=2009&exec_year%5B%5D=2010&exec_year%5B%5D=2011&exec_year%5B%5D=2012&exec_year%5B%5D=2013&exec_year%5B%5D=2014&exec_year%5B%5D=2015&exec_year%5B%5D=2016&exec_year%5B%5D=2017&sex=All&state%5B%5D=LA&sex_1=All&federal=All&foreigner=All&juvenile=All&volunteer=All), while [eight death-row prisoners have been exonerated](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence?inno_name=&exonerated=&state_innocence=19&race=All&dna=All). In addition, the one case in which an Orleans Parish jury did vote for death—after convicting Michael Anderson for a quintuple murder—was overturned by the courts and later resolved with a plea to lesser charges. In 2016, federal authorities presented evidence that another man had committed the five killings.

(M. Sledge, [Orleans DA won’t seek death penalty for Chelsea Thornton, accused of killing her children](https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/courts/article_d23e0692-5509-11e7-93bf-fba53a003f10.html), The New Orleans Advocate, June 19, 2017; K. Daley, "[DA will not seek death penalty for accused cop-killer Travis Boys](https://www.nola.com/crime/2017/06/da_will_not_seek_death_penalty.html)," The Times-Picayune, June 16, 2017.) See [Louisiana](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/louisiana-1).