BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana House committee spent several hours on Tuesday listening to supporters of capital punishment.
That included emotional testimony from family members of murder victims whose loved one's killers are among the more than 70 inmates awaiting execution at Angola.
"Where's the justice for my daughter and the rest of these victims?" Wayne Guzzardo asked. "It's ridiculous."
Guzzardo's daughter's killer is currently on death row.
"We believe in the power of forgiveness, but we also believe that Nathaniel Cole must and should pay his debt to society," Albert Culbert said.
Culbert is related to three people murdered by a Shreveport serial killer 30 years ago.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry invited the victim survivors to appear at the hearing. Landry is a vocal advocate for re-instating the death penalty.
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The state hasn't carried out executions since 2010, in part because of the difficulties in obtaining the drugs considered humane for lethal injections.
"These days the spotlight shines on the feelings and interests of death row murderers instead of the pain of the innocent murdered victims and the loved ones left behind," Landry said.
Neither the Governor's Office nor the Department of Corrections were invited to participate in the hearing.
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Death penalty opponents like New Orleanian Flozell Daniels, whose son was murdered in 2016, waited more than two hours to testify.
"It does not repair loss," Daniels said. "It does not protect the innocent. It does not create a culture in which every life is valued. It is a monument to a history of lynching."
AG Landry urged the legislature to approve alternative methods of execution.
"I support the rule of law and if the legislature spells out whether it be by firing squad, hanging, lethal injection or gas, Landry said.
New Orleans State Representative John Bagneris who serves on the House panel, told Landry the death penalty is immoral.
"Thou shalt not kill," Bagneris said. "I don't think the state should have the power to kill someone."
Gov. Edwards released a statement after the hearing:
"I took an oath to support the Constitution and laws of the United States and the state of Louisiana. The fact of the matter is that we cannot execute someone in the state of Louisiana today because the only legally prescribed manner set forth in state statute is unavailable to us. In the time since we last had this conversation, nothing has changed – the drugs are not available and legislation has not passed to address concerns of drug companies or offer alternative forms of execution. That's not through any fault of my own or the Department of Corrections. I'm not inclined to go back to methods that have been discarded because popular sentiment turned against them or maybe some methods that were deemed to be barbaric and so forth."
Louisiana lawmakers have fought off attempts to abolish capital punishment in recent years. Now death penalty opponents are calling on lawmakers to have an open discussion on the issue during the upcoming session of the state legislature.