6/24/23, 1:17 PM Nearly all Louisiana’s death-row inmates have filed for clemency

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United States | Murder on his mind

Nearly all Louisiana’s death-row inmates have filed for clemency

The lame-duck governor could grant it before his term ends in 2024

image: alamy

Jun 22nd 2023 | BATON ROUGE

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A final term gives a politician an opportunity for courage. John Bel Edwards, Louisiana’s lame-duck
Democratic governor, seemed to be seizing it when he announced his opposition to the death penalty in
a conversation on faith and leadership at Loyola University, a Jesuit college, in March. In a state where Donald
Trump trounced Hillary Clinton in 2016 and easily captured the eight electoral-college votes in 2020, most
voters have long approved of putting inmates to death. Despite newfound support from the outgoing
governor, a bill to ban the practice died in committee in May. Abolishing it, Republicans and prosecutors
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6/24/23, 1:17 PM Nearly all Louisiana’s death-row inmates have filed for clemency
governor, a bill to ban the practice died in committee in May. Abolishing it, Republicans and prosecutors
argued, would incentivise murderers to go rogue.

Mr Edwards’s political bravery is now being put to the test. On June 13th, 51 of the state’s 57 death-row inmates
filed for clemency (the other six chose not to do so). A governor-appointed parole board will hear their cases
one by one—the defence has just 15 minutes to argue for the life of each inmate—and could recommend that
the governor swap out capital punishment for life imprisonment without parole.

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United States
June 24th 2023

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6/24/23, 1:17 PM Nearly all Louisiana’s death-row inmates have filed for clemency

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