Louisiana | Pardon Board delays death row clemency requests for further review

The Louisiana Pardon Board took no action during its meeting yesterday on 56 clemency applications from prisoners sitting on death row.

Most of the clemency petitions were submitted last month and Louisiana District Attorneys Association director Loren Lampert is glad the board is taking its time.

“We’re pleased that the board found that pumping the brakes, making sure that all the ‘i’s were dotted and the ‘t’s were crossed, and that they were complying with the law and their own rules.”

Director of the Pardon Board, Francis Abbott, said the clemency petitions are the most scrutinized their office has ever processed.

Abbott said they are keeping the concerned parties updated on their progress.

Earlier this year, Governor John Bel Edwards said he opposes the death penalty, which has led to nearly every death row inmate seeking a lesser punishment from the death penalty to a life sentence.

Lampert is concerned about rushing these petitions through.

“To try to shoehorn 56 of the most serious cases in Louisiana’s history into a few weeks of review is probably not the best way to run a railroad.”

An attorney for the Capital Appeals Project said the district attorneys and Attorney General Jeff Landry are politicizing the process and attempting to circumvent the Board’s rules to prevent the Board taking a hard look at Louisiana’s broken death penalty system, but Lampert said prosecutors need time to review these cases and present a defense on why clemency should not be granted..

“The ability to review the sometimes decades of mental health records that are in place and the opportunity to present experts on that issue to provide clarity to the board on what they’re actually seeing is paramount.”

Source: louisianaradionetwork.com, Kace Kieschnick, July 25, 2023

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