With clemency efforts stalled and new incoming governor, might Louisiana become an active death penalty state again?

Louisiana was once a very active death penalty state with more executions than any state other than Florida and Texas in the 1980s.  Renown capital abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean wrote her famous 1993 book, Dead Man Walking, based on her work ministering to two convicted murderers on Louisiana’s death row.

But only one execution has been completed in the Pelican State over the last two decades, and there was much talk about possible efforts by outgoing Louisiana Gov John Bel Edwards to commute all of the state’s death row.  But this report from the Louisiana Illuminator spotlights why the state might now be on the verge of another capital punishment shift. The press report should be read in full, but here are the highlights:

The Louisiana state Board of Pardons voted Friday against granting clemency hearings to five Louisiana death row prisoners, ending a monthslong effort to spare the lives of more than 50 people condemned to death.

Over four hours, the four-member panel in Baton Rouge heard impassioned testimony from attorneys, from still-grieving families of murder victims and from friends and relatives of the prisoners themselves.  The board ultimately split the vote 2-2 in four cases, leading to denials, with members Tony Marabella and Bonnie Jackson voting in favor of granting clemency hearings and Curtis Fremin and Alvin Roche, Jr. voting against.  The board denied a fifth case — Winthrop Earl Eaton, convicted in the 1985 killing of Monroe pastor Rev. Lea Joyner — in a 3-1 vote, with Marabella the lone member voting to grant the hearing.

Initial plans to hold clemency hearings — and vote on whether to commute the prisoners’ sentences from death to life — at Friday’s meeting were derailed after conservative Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and several parish district attorneys sued the board.  Under a settlement agreement, rather than voting on whether to commute, the panel met to consider whether allow them to have their cases heard at a future hearing.

There are currently no plans to consider an additional 51 clemency requests, despite Gov. John Bel Edwards’ support of hearings for all 56 death row prisoners who applied.  Edwards, who, as governor, makes the final decision on recommendations from the board, kicked up a political storm earlier this year when he publicly stated his opposition to the death penalty. Capital defense attorneys responded by seeking to have the sentences of up to 56 death row prisoners commuted to life, while a group of pro-death penalty prosecutors, led by Landry, sought to stymie those efforts.

Landry, the leading candidate in the upcoming election for governor, has expressed his desire to move forward with the executions of those on death row, something that hasn’t happened in Louisiana since 2010 due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

Notably, as of Saturday night, as reported in this AP article, Landry is not just Louisiana’s Attorney General, he is also now governor-elect. And the AP notes he has campaigned on tough-on-crime themes:

Landry has made clear that one of his top priorities as governor would be addressing crime in urban areas. The Republican has pushed a tough-on-crime rhetoric, calling for more “transparency” in the justice system and continuing to support capital punishment. Louisiana has the nation’s second-highest murder rate per capita.

Of course, political advocacy for capital punishment does not always convert, quickly or even at any time, to actually completing executions.  But it still seems quite notable that, just earlier this year, there was much talk about mass commutation on Louisiana’s death row; now it seems much more likely that Louisiana could be getting back into the execution business.