BATON ROUGE, La. — As expected on Wednesday, Louisiana Attorney General – and 2023 gubernatorial frontrunner – Jeff Landry filed a lawsuit to block the capital clemency hearings requested by Governor John Bel Edwards.
“The Board of Pardons should not sacrifice the rule of law, the rights of victims, and the public’s participation simply to achieve the Governor’s political objective,” said Attorney General Landry. “The laws on our books must be enforced and proper procedure must be followed.”
“The court must ensure our clemency process advances in a legal and transparent way,” he added. “The victims of Willie Tart, Larry Roy, and other murderers deserve truth, transparency, and justice; I am fighting to deliver that for them.”
The Louisiana District Attorney's Association is also expected to follow suit and file on the day.
East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III filed his own oppositions on Sept. 12, as shown below:
In an opposition statement made last month from the LDAA, Loren Lambert said, "Asking the Board to violate this unambiguous and properly promulgated rule is inappropriate and a direct affront to the victims and their families."
In total, 56 death row inmates requested clemency and 20 were granted hearings after Gov. Edwards expressed his views against capital punishment while speaking to Loyola University in March.
"The death penalty is so final," Edwards said. "When you make a mistake, you can’t get it back. And we know that mistakes have been made in sentencing people to death.
It’s another example of how I think being pro-life has got to mean more than the issue of abortion."
Landry responded in opposition.
“I oppose clemency for all of these offenders who were given valid death sentences by juries of their peers," Landry said in a statement. "My office will formally oppose their applications.”
An attorney for several of the clemency applicants offered a statement shortly after multiple attorneys, victims, representatives and law enforcement were to hold a press conference Wednesday morning to discuss oppositions.
“The Pardon Board has been completely transparent in handling the clemency applications of Louisiana’s death row prisoners, and it is following its own rules," stated Cecelia Kappel, Executive Director of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project.
"It is disheartening to see the District Attorneys and AG Landry working so hard to block the Board from considering these individuals’ claims of innocence, intellectual disability, serious mental illness, prosecutorial misconduct, youth, ineffective counsel, and the other serious flaws in their cases and Louisiana’s death penalty system," Kappel continued. "If the prosecutors have confidence in the integrity of these convictions and death sentences, they should have nothing to fear from a clemency hearing.”
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