Governor John Bel Edwards Directs Louisiana Board to Consider Death Row Clemency Petitions and Set Hearings

On August 9^th, with the use of his exec­u­tive author­i­ty, Governor John Bel Edwards (pic­tured) asked the Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole to return the 56 clemen­cy appli­ca­tions filed by death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers in Louisiana to its dock­et for con­sid­er­a­tion and set them for hear­ings. The Board of Pardons will now have until January 2024, when Gov. Edwards offi­cial­ly leaves office, to decide whether to rec­om­mend clemen­cy for near­ly all of the state’s death row pris­on­ers. Earlier this year, Gov. Edwards expressed his oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, stat­ing that ​“the death penal­ty is so final. When you make a mis­take, you can’t get it back. And we know that mis­takes have been made in sen­tenc­ing peo­ple to death.” Gov. Edwards, who has the author­i­ty to sign off on clemen­cy requests, asked the board to con­sid­er the appli­ca­tions despite Attorney General Jeff Landry’s advi­so­ry opin­ion that none of the indi­vid­u­als are eli­gi­ble for clemen­cy. AG Landry, who is run­ning to replace Gov. Edwards, has argued that the clemen­cy appli­ca­tions are untimely.

In his let­ter to the Board, Gov. Edwards empha­sizes that any pris­on­er who receives clemen­cy would receive a life with­out parole sen­tence and would nev­er be released, absent a find­ing of fac­tu­al inno­cence. He writes that while he has the Constitutional author­i­ty to issue tem­po­rary reprieves and stays of exe­cu­tion, a com­mu­ta­tion requires a Board rec­om­men­da­tion. With respect to AG Landry’s advi­so­ry opin­ion, Gov. Edwards writes that ​“to read the rules to pro­hib­it a cap­i­tal appli­cant from ask­ing the Board for clemen­cy at any time out­side of the one-year win­dow after a direct appeal denial is mis­guid­ed and yields a result that is both absurd and illog­i­cal. The rule, as writ­ten, sim­ply does not pre­vent the Board’s con­sid­er­a­tion of these appli­ca­tions at this time.”

Governor Edwards also reit­er­ates his oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. He notes that ​“we must con­sid­er fur­ther the imper­fect nature of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and the actu­al inno­cence that has been proven far too often after impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty.” Since 1999, nine peo­ple have been exon­er­at­ed from death row in Louisiana, six of whom are peo­ple of col­or. Many of the indi­vid­u­als apply­ing for clemen­cy have cit­ed the mis­takes, racial dis­par­i­ties, and oth­er long­stand­ing sys­temic prob­lems with the fair admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty in Louisiana. Data from the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project indi­cate that 74% of those on Louisiana’s death row are peo­ple of col­or, and 67% are Black. The data also show that many peo­ple of col­or were sen­tenced to death by all-white juries. Gov. Edwards reminds the Board that ​“it is impor­tant to note, the ques­tion is not whether these indi­vid­u­als should be set free, but whether a state-sanc­tioned exe­cu­tion meets the val­ues of our pro-life state. All of these rea­sons were enough for [him] to sup­port leg­is­la­tion to end the death penal­ty in Louisiana. While that effort failed in the Legislature, the Louisiana Constitution gives [him] as Governor and this Board the author­i­ty and the duty to con­sid­er these appli­ca­tions for indi­vid­u­als already sen­tenced to death. We should not shrink that obligation.”

Louisiana has car­ried out just one exe­cu­tion in the last 20 years. In January 2010, Gerald Bordelon was exe­cut­ed after he waived his appeals. Currently, a short­age of lethal injec­tion drugs has pre­vent­ed the sched­ul­ing of any executions.