BATON ROUGE, La. — A death penalty bill that would allow Louisiana to use the electric chair and deadly gas as execution methods, passed in the senate on Thursday, bringing the law one step closer to Gov. Jeff Landry's desk to sign into law.
HB 6 passed in the senate with a 24 to 15 vote, after passing in the House last week as part of the crime special session initiated by Landry and his allies this month.
In Louisiana, 58 people currently sit on death row.
"At the discretion of the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections ... every sentence of death shall be by one of the following methods," HB 6 reads. "Intravenous injection ... Nitrogen hypoxia ... Electrocution."
Gov. Landry has indicated his support for the bill as well as all other bills passed during the crime special session.
During the death penalty debate, Landry sat in the balcony with a group of families whose loved ones were murdered. The governor did not take questions after the vote.
There was emotional testimony on both sides of the issue.
Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans spoke against the bill saying, “There are many victims who don’t think this is a method of achieving justice. Inefficient, ineffective, and inhumane.”
Sen. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans called the death penalty “cruel and unusual” and assessed in a discriminatory manner. He said while one-third of the Louisiana population is African American, blacks make up two-thirds of the inmates on death row.
Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek said, “The death penalty is the ultimate for the worst of the worst crimes. It’s not an easy vote, but a necessary one.”
Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, handled the bill on the Senate floor. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, R-Hammond.
During his closing, Kleinpeter asked lawmakers to honor the families in the gallery, “so they can get the justice they deserve.”
An execution has not occurred in the state since 2010, due in part to a shortage of lethal injection drugs.
Gerald James Bordelon, 47, was the most recent person executed in Louisiana. Bordelon was killed with a lethal injection. Bordelon was the state's first voluntary execution after he had refused a death sentence appeal for kidnapping and murdering his 12-year-old stepdaughter Courtney LeBlanc.
Andrew Lee Jones, 35, was the last person executed by electrocution. He was seated in the infamous electric chair "Gruesome Gertie" in 1991. Jones had been convicted of murdering 11-year-old Tumekica Jackson.
The crime special session started on Monday with a speech by Gov. Landry, advocating for stricter crime laws. The session's wrap-up has been scheduled for March 6.
"Everyone in this room is aware that crime has put a national spotlight on our great state," Landry said to the legislature at the start of the session.
Other bills passed by one chamber of the legislature since then have been a senate bill on expanding permit-less concealed carry of guns and lowering the age accused criminals can be tried in adult court from 18 to 17.
