Louisiana Exoneree, Family Members of Victims and Prisoners, and Criminal Defense Lawyers Support of Clemency for Death-Sentenced Prisoners

At an August 15, 2023 ral­ly orga­nized by The Promise for Justice Initiative, a group opposed to the death penal­ty and which advo­cates for greater change in the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem, fam­i­ly mem­bers of vic­tims and pris­on­ers and death row exoneree Shareef Cousin called on the Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole to grant the 56 clemen­cy appli­ca­tions that have been sub­mit­ted by pris­on­ers on death row. 

​“Part of clemen­cy is real­ly about giv­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to the sur­vivors of these crimes to work on rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, to work on the heal­ing of the wounds that were cre­at­ed through those action,” stat­ed Brett Malone, whose moth­er was killed 23 years ago by a pris­on­er who has filed a clemen­cy peti­tion. ​“I just can’t see, at this point, how exe­cut­ing some­one is going to bring any kind of clo­sure or heal­ing from the expe­ri­ence that we’ve had,” he said. 

Following remarks, the group deliv­ered a 2,000-signature peti­tion that sup­port­ed com­mu­ta­tion for every death row pris­on­er to the governor’s office. District Attorney Hillar Moore told WAFB that the num­ber of sig­na­tures pales in com­par­i­son to the num­ber of death penal­ty sup­port­ers in the state, stat­ing, ​“It has no effect, it’s a ploy I guess for them to say these peo­ple are against it.” 

Mr. Cousin, who served as the youngest per­son on Louisiana death row at the age of 17, said, ​“This is a mis­sion and an oppor­tu­ni­ty for me to have lived in those dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances and I have met many of the men who are ask­ing for mer­cy to save their lives.” 

​“We’re plead­ing for right­ful pun­ish­ment,” said Marah Bowie, sis­ter of a death row pris­on­er. ​“This is a moment for Louisiana to tru­ly show that we val­ue human life…this is anoth­er exam­ple of what it means to be pro-life.” 

On August 9, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards request­ed the Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole to review and set hear­ings for 56 clemen­cy appli­ca­tions filed by death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers in the state. In his let­ter, he explained ​“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.” The governor’s office requires a rec­om­men­da­tion from the Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole to grant a com­mu­ta­tion. 

The Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers issued a pub­lic state­ment in sup­port of the Governor’s actions direct­ing review, not­ing that clemen­cy pow­er is enshrined in the state’s con­sti­tu­tion and oper­ates as a ​“crit­i­cal fail­safe in the jus­tice sys­tem.” In response to the Attorney General’s alle­ga­tion that any grant of clemen­cy would ​“insult the judg­ment” of the jury, the orga­ni­za­tion notes that ​“All cap­i­tal juries are now instruct­ed that the Governor may com­mute a death sen­tence to life.” 

Governor Edwards, who has already served the max­i­mum two terms, will be leav­ing office in January 2024. Current Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is run­ning for gov­er­nor, has called the clemen­cy appli­ca­tions untime­ly and has advised that none are eli­gi­ble for clemency.