Of the 12 death sen­tences hand­ed down in Louisiana in the last 5 years, 8 have come from Caddo Parish. Caddo is also among the 2% of U.S. coun­ties respon­si­ble for 56% of peo­ple on death row. With a pop­u­la­tion of just 257,000, Caddo Parish has sent 16 peo­ple to death row, the sec­ond high­est of any parish in Louisiana. Two pros­e­cu­tors, one of whom is under inves­ti­ga­tion for pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, are respon­si­ble for 6 of the recent death sen­tences. Hugo Holland, who han­dled two cas­es that result­ed in death sen­tences in the last five years, is being inves­ti­gat­ed by the Disciplinary Board of the state’s bar asso­ci­a­tion for fail­ing to turn over evi­dence favor­able to a defen­dant being tried for the mur­der of a prison guard. That defen­dan­t’s death sen­tence was over­turned in 2014. Prosecutor Dale Cox, who obtained four of Caddo’s recent death sen­tences, has said he believes death row inmates spend too long await­ing exe­cu­tion, but wait­ed 10 months to sign off on the release of Glenn Ford after evi­dence of Ford’s inno­cence was uncov­ered. Ford was con­vict­ed in Caddo Parish and spent 30 years on death row before his exon­er­a­tion. (Pictured: Caddo County Courthouse, 2010.)

(J. Gill, ​“Capital pun­ish­ment a Caddo Parish cot­tage indus­try in Louisiana,” The New Orleans Advocate, April 6, 2015.) See Arbitrariness and Prosecutorial Misconduct.

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