Outgoing Louisiana Gov commuting lots of life sentences to create parole possibilities

As detailed in prior posts here and here, there has been a considerable recent effort in the Pelican State to try to get outgoing Gov John Bel Edwards to commute the capital sentences of 57 murderers on the state’s death row.  That effort proved unsuccessful, but with less fanfare Gov Edwards has been using his clemency pen recently to grant hope to another notable prisoner polulation.  This lengthy local article, headlined “On way out, Gov. John Bel Edwards ramps up relief for life prisoners,” provides some of the details.  Here are excerpts:

Gov. John Bel Edwards has spent his waning months in office doling out mercy at a pace unseen in decades from a Louisiana governor. Edwards has commuted the sentences of 70 prisoners since August, among 123 commutations he’s issued over his final year in office, according to data from the state Board of Pardons and Parole.  That’s by far the highest tally of any single year over his two terms.

In the bulk of those decisions, Edwards turned life sentences for long-serving prisoners convicted of murder into a number of years — ranging from 35 to 99 — at the board’s recommendation.  Those pen strokes enabled the immediate release of several of the longest-serving prisoners on “good time,” while bestowing parole eligibility to scores of others who were sentenced to life.  The parole board has granted release to many of them since.  Francis Abbott, the board’s executive director, said that 41 of the 123 people granted commutations this year by the governor remain in prison.

A 2021 law expanded parole eligibility to long-serving prisoners who are not serving life, once they’ve completed 20 years in prison and reached the age of 45.  They still must win the approval of the parole board to go free.  More than 90% of the 123 commutations Edwards has granted in 2023 this year went to prisoners serving life sentences, the data show.  The vast majority have served at least 20 years; about half spent the last 30-plus years locked up.

Edwards commuted the life sentence of Leon Brent, the longest-serving prisoner on the list, to 99 years on Aug. 1, and he was released the next day under the good-time calculus at the time.  Now in his 80s, Brent was convicted of aggravated rape in East Baton Rouge Parish and sentenced in 1964….  The average age of the 123 prisoners at their clemency hearings was 57. They include dozens who were sentenced in the 1980s or earlier. On a per-capita basis, Louisiana has far more people serving life without parole than any other state.

“The men and women whose sentences were commuted by the governor represent a fraction of our state’s 4,000-plus lifer population,” said Andrew Hundley, executive director of the Louisiana Parole Project, which supports and houses incarcerated people reentering society.  “Most of them had served more than three or four decades in prison and their records indicate clear evidence of remorse and rehabilitation.  These individuals were thoroughly vetted by an open and public process, and they have proven they are worthy of a second chance.”…

Edwards, a Democrat in an increasingly GOP-dominated state, has picked up the pace in the past few months. More commutations could come before Jan. 8, when he cedes the office to Gov.-elect Jeff Landry.  As attorney general, Landry blocked a push by advocates, which Edwards supported, for the pardon board to hear a stack of 55 clemency requests from death row prisoners and make recommendations before he leaves office. Those prisoners were seeking to have death sentences converted to sentences of life without parole.

Edwards can only grant clemency requests, including commutations and full pardons, on the board’s recommendation. In deciding whether to recommend clemency, the board’s members review prisoners’ applications, convene hearings to discuss them and relay updates on the process to victims or their surviving family members, who are invited to participate in the hearings….

Edwards now has exercised his clemency powers more than any governor since Edwin Edwards, who in his first two terms as governor in the 1970s and 1980s commuted the sentences of well over 1,200 Louisiana prisoners.  In the mid-2000s, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco commuted the sentences of 129 prisoners over four years.

Bobby Jindal was the most sparing in his use of his clemency powers in the modern era. He commuted prison sentences just three times over his two terms as governor.  John Bel Edwards, Jindal’s successor, opened the relief valve somewhat in his first term, granting 33 commutations over those four years.  He eclipsed that figure in 2020 alone, granting 36 commutations to start his second term.  Edwards then commuted sentences for 31 prisoners in 2021 and 60 prisoners in 2022, before doubling that tally in his final year.