Two state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and opposite ends of the Capitol are coming together to try to end Capitol Punishment in Louisiana.
On Wednesday (March 27) Representative Terry Landry (D) from New Iberia and Senator Dan Claitor (R) from Baton Rouge pre-filed two bills for the Legislative Session to abolish the death penalty.
The two lawmakers say they were motivated by different reasons for wanting to abolish the death penalty.
“As a Republican I look at programs that work and I look at programs that work, and try to improve on those, and I look at programs that don’t work, and try to improve on them or get rid of them. And as it turns out, in my view, the death penalty doesn’t work,“ said Claitor.
His colleague from across the aisle Representative Terry Landry is former law enforcement and says he’s had a change of heart.
“I’ve evolved, initially I was pro-death penalty, working in law enforcement, seeing the carnage of violent crimes but I evolved basically having more facts.
Both lawmakers now believe the death penalty isn’t a deterrent to violent crime.
“We in Louisiana have the highest per capita homicide in the U.S. and the death penalty and it’s not making any difference so why follow that path,“ said Claitor.
Abolishing the death penalty has been attempted in the legislature before, with little support. And according to a poll by the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication a majority of Louisianans favor the death penalty.
When asked “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder“. 58% said they do. 34% oppose it.
Breaking the numbers down between Democrats and Republicans produce an even larger gap.
According to the research only 42% of Democrats are in favor of the death penalty while 74% of Republicans polled favor the Death penalty.
So Senator Claitor has a tough sell in the Senate come April 8th.
“Oh you could definitely say I’m an outlier on this issue. But as more information is shared and people realize it’s not an efficient program, and it’s also exorbitantly expensive, we basically spent 100 million dollars in the last ten years to get one volunteer, how effective is that program?“ said Claitor.
Their legislation is being proposed as the State’s death penalty, more specifically the type of drugs used to carry out the death penalty is being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.
An execution hasn’t been carried out in Louisiana sense 2010.
An issue that could become a fodder for debate in the race for governor featuring a Democrat Governor, and two Republican challengers.
Claitor and Landry deny the court challenge has anything to do with their effort to get rid of Capitol Punishment in Louisiana.
According to Landry’s version HB 215 the proposed change “eliminates the death penalty as a possible punishment for the crimes of first degree murder, first degree rape, and treason. Further, provides for the penalty of life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence for these offenses.“
The change in law would only apply to offenses committed on or after August 1st 2019.
Prior death sentences would still apply.
We’ll follow these two pieces of legislation closely and bring you updates on their progress during the session which is set to begin April 8th.
To see the entire interview with Senator Claitor and Representative Landry be sure to watch This Week in Louisiana Politics this Sunday (March 31) at 10:30 am on NBC Local 33 News.
On Wednesday (March 27) Representative Terry Landry (D) from New Iberia and Senator Dan Claitor (R) from Baton Rouge pre-filed two bills for the Legislative Session to abolish the death penalty.
The two lawmakers say they were motivated by different reasons for wanting to abolish the death penalty.
“As a Republican I look at programs that work and I look at programs that work, and try to improve on those, and I look at programs that don’t work, and try to improve on them or get rid of them. And as it turns out, in my view, the death penalty doesn’t work,“ said Claitor.
His colleague from across the aisle Representative Terry Landry is former law enforcement and says he’s had a change of heart.
“I’ve evolved, initially I was pro-death penalty, working in law enforcement, seeing the carnage of violent crimes but I evolved basically having more facts.
Both lawmakers now believe the death penalty isn’t a deterrent to violent crime.
“We in Louisiana have the highest per capita homicide in the U.S. and the death penalty and it’s not making any difference so why follow that path,“ said Claitor.
Abolishing the death penalty has been attempted in the legislature before, with little support. And according to a poll by the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication a majority of Louisianans favor the death penalty.
When asked “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder“. 58% said they do. 34% oppose it.
Breaking the numbers down between Democrats and Republicans produce an even larger gap.
According to the research only 42% of Democrats are in favor of the death penalty while 74% of Republicans polled favor the Death penalty.
So Senator Claitor has a tough sell in the Senate come April 8th.
“Oh you could definitely say I’m an outlier on this issue. But as more information is shared and people realize it’s not an efficient program, and it’s also exorbitantly expensive, we basically spent 100 million dollars in the last ten years to get one volunteer, how effective is that program?“ said Claitor.
Their legislation is being proposed as the State’s death penalty, more specifically the type of drugs used to carry out the death penalty is being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.
An execution hasn’t been carried out in Louisiana sense 2010.
An issue that could become a fodder for debate in the race for governor featuring a Democrat Governor, and two Republican challengers.
Claitor and Landry deny the court challenge has anything to do with their effort to get rid of Capitol Punishment in Louisiana.
According to Landry’s version HB 215 the proposed change “eliminates the death penalty as a possible punishment for the crimes of first degree murder, first degree rape, and treason. Further, provides for the penalty of life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence for these offenses.“
The change in law would only apply to offenses committed on or after August 1st 2019.
Prior death sentences would still apply.
We’ll follow these two pieces of legislation closely and bring you updates on their progress during the session which is set to begin April 8th.
To see the entire interview with Senator Claitor and Representative Landry be sure to watch This Week in Louisiana Politics this Sunday (March 31) at 10:30 am on NBC Local 33 News.