The Louisiana Pardon Board has decided to return the clemency applications from 56 death row inmates hoping Governor Edwards would reduce their sentence to life in prison. Louisiana District Attorneys Association Director Loren Lampert says if the Pardon Board took up these petitions they would violate their own rules.
“It doesn’t mean they can’t ever have a clemency or a reprieve hearing, it means that in order to do it, they either need to follow the rules or the rules must be changed,” said Lampert.
The rules say the Pardon Board can consider clemency petitions from death row inmates if the application was made within one year of their final appeal or if an execution date is approaching.
But the director of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project, Cecelia Kappel, says what the Louisiana Pardon Board has done is unprecedented. She says the board has a history of waiving its rules so death penalty clemency applications can be heard.
“The board has considered applications by death row inmates to review their cases on the merits without kicking them out on procedural grounds,” said Kappel.
The Louisiana Capital Appeals Project filed the applications for clemency after Governor John Bel Edwards announced his opposition to the death penalty. Kappel says the governor still has the authority to direct the Louisiana Pardon Board to review the cases.
“The governor ultimately has the power and the prerogative to order these cases to be heard on merit and it’s our hope that he does that,” said Kappel.
But Lampert believes the Pardon Board’s decision to return the clemency petitions puts an end to any hope that these death row inmates can have their death sentences commuted to life in prison without parole. He says even the governor is powerless in this situation.
“The real question that needs to be asked is can the governor or anyone else for that matter order them to violate their own rules, obviously we believe the answer is no,” said Lampert.
A spokesperson for Edwards’ office declined to comment.
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