UPDATE: Several groups have issued statements critical of Louisiana's plans to resume executing people
“Seeking executions can only be meant to distract from the very real problems with the death penalty in Louisiana, which impacts not the worst of the worst, but those with mental illness, brain damage, devastating childhood trauma, and often all three,” said Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel, Executive Director of The Center for Social Justice at Loyola University and experienced Louisiana capital attorney.
The release containing her comments also provided comments from two others:
“The Governor’s actions are evidence of what we’ve known for a long time: the government and politics have no place in deciding who lives and who dies. To put communities who have suffered great loss through a stunt motivated by politics, is cruel, disturbing, and another injustice in the long chain of injustices. Louisiana can, should, and will demand better of our leaders.” said Samantha Kennedy, Executive Director of the Promise of Justice Initiative, a Louisiana organization leading the lawsuit against the State’s methods of execution.
“The Louisiana NAACP condemns this extreme action by the Governor,” said Michael McClanahan, President of the NAACP Louisiana State Conference. “Executions do not serve justice. We refuse to stand by while Louisiana resurrects the racist cruelties of the past, echoing the brutal injustices of lynching and slavery, especially offensive during Black History month, a month meant to honor freedom and accomplishment. The death penalty was wrong then, and it is wrong now.”
According to the release, "Louisiana’s death penalty has been plagued by systemic problems. Since 1976, 4 out of 5 death sentences in Louisiana have been overturned on appeal. Research by legal advocates has shown that the application of the death penalty in Louisiana is rife with significant racial disparities, widespread evidence of intellectual disability, and misconduct by prosecutors that has resulted in innocent people being sentenced to death. The death penalty has been overwhelmingly imposed on people of color, and 2 out of 3 people on death row today are Black, including men sentenced to death by all-white juries who openly discussed race during their deliberations."
Earlier Monday, Governor Jeff Landry announced that the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections has finalized and implemented an updated protocol that allows for the sentences of inmates on death Row to be carried out.
According to the Governor's Office, this Protocol for Executions of Death Sentences includes procedures for the nitrogen hypoxia method recently approved by the Louisiana Legislature.
According to our media partners at The Advocate, Louisiana has not carried out the death penalty since 2010. The newspaper explains that, in an execution by nitrogen hypoxia, the inmate's face is covered by a mask and pure nitrogren is pumped in instead of oxygen, causing death by asphyxiation.
Landry approved the bill last year in a special session expanding death row executions methods.
“For too long, Louisiana has failed to uphold the promises made to victims of our State’s most violent crimes; but that failure of leadership by previous administrations is over,” said Governor Jeff Landry. “The time for broken promises has ended; we will carry out these sentences and justice will be dispensed.”
