LOUISIANA, USA — “That is the law of the land, and we need to enforce the law of the land,” said Howard Vincent as he testified before a house committee Tuesday.
Vincent told lawmakers it’s time for executions in Louisiana to be upheld.
“You have to take into account there are extremely evil, deviant people and these people only worry about themselves,” said Vincent.
Vincent’s brother, Steven Vincent, was a state trooper who was killed in 2015. The 44-year-old was responding to a driver who ran into a ditch in Lafayette Parish. That driver, Kevin Daigle, shot Vincent. Daigle was later convicted and sentenced to death.
“This guy is on video. They got a confession. They got DNA,” said Vincent. “It exceeds the standard of reasonable doubt.”
Louisiana has had trouble getting the drugs needed for lethal injections, so executions have been on hold.
Lethal injection is currently the only legal method.
“This bill will bring healthy debate, as it should. What is not debatable is that the death penalty is legal in Louisiana,” said Representative Nicky Muscarello of Hammond.
Under House Bill 6, authored by Muscarello, electrocution and nitrogen gas would be added as legal methods. It would also keep secret the manufacturer of drugs used to carry out executions.
“Our governor has asked the legislature to bring back barbaric practices of the electric chair and of nitrogen hypoxia, which is essentially suffocation,” said director of Louisiana Interfaith against Executions (L.I.F.E.), Alison McCrary.
McCrary is a spiritual advisor for death row inmates and even works with victim’s families. She points to wrongful convictions and guilty inmates who’ve repented as reasons to rethink capital punishment altogether.
“It’s important to know who will be killed in our names and for us to ask to be a culture of life, a culture of mercy, a culture of forgives, rather than vengeance,” said McCrary.
While opponents see it as vengeance, supporters see it as justice. “Members, we made an oath to uphold the laws of our state. You can honor that oath and remove the hurdles so that justice can be served,” said Rep. Muscarello.
House Bill 6 passed the house committee and is now headed to the floor for debate. Last month, Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen gas for an execution.
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