Governor John Bel Edwards gives COVID briefing January 13, 2022.
Clemency has been filed for 51 of the state’s 57 death row inmates, asking Governor John Bel Edwards to commute their death sentences to life in prison. Edwards has made several comments recently that he opposes the death penalty, and when asked if he plans to commute the sentences.
“These applications have to be individually scrutinized and judged. And I don’t act on any of them unless and until the requisite vote of the Pardon Board happens,” said Edwards.
Edwards even addressed his feelings on the death penalty in his State of the State address in April.
“When I pointed out that in the last 20 years, there’s been one execution and I think six exonerations,” said Edwards.
According to the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project since 1999, nine innocent people have been exonerated from death row and the state’s death penalty is overwhelmingly imposed on people of color.
Edwards says he’ll consider the petitions after they’ve been reviewed by the Board of Pardons.
“I’m going to be very measured in what I say publicly because I’ve never told an individual member of the Pardon Board or collectively what I would want them to do. I think they have to exercise their own judgment,” said Edwards.
The state’s constitution authorizes the governor to commute a death sentence upon favorable recognition from the Board of Pardons.
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