Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole Denies Clemency Hearings for Five Death-Sentenced Prisoners

On October 13, 2023, after a brief admin­is­tra­tive hear­ing, the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole denied clemen­cy hear­ings for five of the 56 death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers seek­ing clemen­cy before Governor John Bel Edwards leaves office in January 2024. The four-mem­ber pan­el split its vote on four of the five appli­ca­tions, with a major­i­ty deny­ing the fifth appli­ca­tion on the grounds that Winthrop Eaton is unlike­ly to be exe­cut­ed because he is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. Clifford Deruise, Daniel Irish, Emmett Taylor, and Antoinette Frank were denied clemen­cy hear­ings despite hav­ing claims of inno­cence, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, racial bias, seri­ous trau­ma, and men­tal ill­ness. There are cur­rent­ly no oth­er hear­ings sched­uled for the remaining petitioners. 

In August, Governor John Bel Edwards direct­ed the Pardons and Parole Board to sched­ule clemen­cy hear­ings for death-sen­tenced appli­cants before he leaves office in January 2024. The Governor can­not con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly com­mute any death sen­tence with­out the Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion. Attorney General (and Governor-elect) Jeff Landry and some state dis­trict attor­neys denounced the ​‘rushed’ efforts to hear the clemen­cy appli­ca­tions and sued to pre­vent any appli­ca­tions from mov­ing for­ward. A last-minute set­tle­ment result­ed in a reduc­tion in the num­ber of sched­uled clemen­cy hear­ings from 20 to just five, all of which have now been denied.

In response to the Board’s deci­sion, Cecelia Kappel, Executive Director of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project, urged the Pardons and Parole Board to sched­ule addi­tion­al hear­ings. ​“Governor Edwards’ let­ter to the Board in August was clear that the Board must hold clemen­cy hear­ings for the indi­vid­u­als on death row. These hear­ings would have allowed all par­ties to be heard, includ­ing the appli­cants them­selves. Governor Edwards must step up to clar­i­fy that he intends for the Board to hold sub­stan­tive clemen­cy hear­ings for all of the death row appli­cants before he leaves office.”

The Board declined to move for­ward with the five sched­uled clemen­cy hear­ings after just four hours of con­sid­er­a­tion, dur­ing which time they heard lim­it­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from defense lawyers and vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. Mr. Deruise was found guilty and sen­tenced to death for the mur­ders of an 11-month-old and anoth­er indi­vid­ual on a sep­a­rate inci­dent in 1995. Mr. Deruise’s fam­i­ly told the Board how much he has changed since his incar­cer­a­tion, and the extreme men­tal health issues he faces from repeat­ed child­hood trau­ma. Daniel Irish was sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the mur­der of his land­lord three years ear­li­er. His appli­ca­tion high­light­ed his youth­ful­ness and cul­pa­bil­i­ty, as he was just 18 years old when sen­tenced to death. Emmett Taylor was sen­tenced to death in 1997 for the killing of a phar­ma­cy work­er while steal­ing a drug test. His lawyers pre­sent­ed evi­dence about his intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, men­tal ill­ness, brain dam­age, his ques­tion­able con­fes­sion, and new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence. Antoinette Frank is the only woman on Louisiana’s death row. A for­mer NOPD offi­cer, she was sen­tenced to death in 1995 for the rob­bery and mur­der of a fel­low police offi­cer and two oth­ers at a restau­rant in New Orleans East. Ms. Frank’s clemen­cy appli­ca­tion out­lined the intense sex­u­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal abuse she faced through­out her child­hood and for­ma­tive years. Panel mem­ber Alvin Roche told reporters that he vot­ed against Ms. Frank’s request because he feared her eli­gi­bil­i­ty for parole. Mr. Roche said, ​“this isn’t about being com­pas­sion­ate” [because] ​“this is about cre­at­ing an avenue, an inter­state for [Ms. Frank] to be released on parole.

Sister Helen Prejean, a long­time advo­cate for death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers and an abo­li­tion­ist, filed a law­suit ear­li­er this month accus­ing the Board of Pardons and Parole of vio­lat­ing the state’s pub­lic meet­ings law. She warns that Governor-elect Landry ​“will use his pow­er to line peo­ple up and exe­cute them.” Since the rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty in 1976, Louisiana has exe­cut­ed 28 indi­vid­u­als. 12 peo­ple in Louisiana have been exon­er­at­ed in the same time period.