A bill seeking to end the death penalty in Louisiana meets defeat in a Senate committee. Monroe Democrat Senator Katrina Jackson argued for her bill before the Judiciary C panel, saying Louisiana is only one of 27 states that still sentence people to death and it should stop, “God gives a life and I don’t think he authorizes us to take it….I’ve never felt that was a power that myself, the state or any jury of twelve should have in their hands” Jackson said.
Louisiana has not executed anyone since 2010, and the state’s last death sentence was handed out on 2020. The state has difficulty in buying the drugs used for a lethal injection execution, and so Jackson feels it’s time to put an end to the punishment altogether. She says, if you cannot agree with a moral argument, consider a fiscal one: Louisiana spends over $13-million every year on prison “death rows” and execution system expense.
But there was doubt among committee members. Franklinton Republican Senator Beth Mizell worries Jackson bill forgets the rights of the survivors of a capital crime, “We didn’t talk about the victim. We didn’t talk about the victim’s family. As presumptuous as it is to decide a death penalty, to me it’s presumptuous to decide what that victim has right to ask for” Mizell says.
Jackson argued that too many people in Louisiana have been sentenced to death; only to have their conviction overturned later. She says some were actually executed, then found to be innocent later. Baton Rouge Republican Bodi White – who could not support the bill – says that was an earlier, less-enlightened time. He points to the state’s recent decision to end non-unanimous jury verdicts as a safeguard against a mistake. “We went to twelve out of twelve…you have to vote twelve out of twelve to get a guilty verdict”
Voted down by a 5-to-1 vote, the bill is defeated for this session.
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