PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Governor Edwards also reiterates his opposition to the death penalty. He notes that “we must consider further the imperfect nature of the criminal justice system and the actual innocence that has been proven far too often after imposition of the death penalty.” Since 1999, nine people have been exonerated from death row in Louisiana, six of whom are people of color. Many of the individuals applying for clemency have cited the mistakes, racial disparities, and other longstanding systemic problems with the fair administration of the death penalty in Louisiana. Data from the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project indicate that 74% of those on Louisiana’s death row are people of color, and 67% are Black. The data also show that many people of color were sentenced to death by all-white juries."
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POST: "Governor John Bel Edwards Directs Louisiana Board to Consider Death Row Clemency Petitions and Set Hearings," published on August 10, 2023.
GIST: "On August 9th, with the use of his executive authority, Governor John Bel Edwards (pictured) asked the Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole to return the 56 clemency applications filed by death-sentenced prisoners in Louisiana to its docket for consideration and set them for hearings.
The Board of Pardons will now have until January 2024, when Gov. Edwards officially leaves office, to decide whether to recommend clemency for nearly all of the state’s death row prisoners .AG Landry, who is running to replace Gov. Edwards, has argued that the clemency applications are untimely.
In his letter to the Board, Gov. Edwards emphasizes that any prisoner who receives clemency would receive a life without parole sentence and would never be released, absent a finding of factual innocence.
He writes that while he has the Constitutional authority to issue temporary reprieves and stays of execution, a commutation requires a Board recommendation.
With respect to AG Landry’s advisory opinion, Gov. Edwards writes that “to read the rules to prohibit a capital applicant from asking the Board for clemency at any time outside of the one-year window after a direct appeal denial is misguided and yields a result that is both absurd and illogical.
The rule, as written, simply does not prevent the Board’s consideration of these applications at this time.”
Governor Edwards also reiterates his opposition to the death penalty.
He notes that “we must consider further the imperfect nature of the criminal justice system and the actual innocence that has been proven far too often after imposition of the death penalty.”
Since 1999, nine people have been exonerated from death row in Louisiana, six of whom are people of color.
Many of the individuals applying for clemency have cited the mistakes, racial disparities, and other longstanding systemic problems with the fair administration of the death penalty in Louisiana.
Data from the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project indicate that 74% of those on Louisiana’s death row are people of color, and 67% are Black.
The data also show that many people of color were sentenced to death by all-white juries.
Gov. Edwards reminds the Board that “it is important to note, the question is not whether these individuals should be set free, but whether a state-sanctioned execution meets the values of our pro-life state.
All of these reasons were enough for [him] to support legislation to end the death penalty in Louisiana.
While that effort failed in the Legislature, the Louisiana Constitution gives [him] as Governor and this Board the authority and the duty to consider these applications for individuals already sentenced to death. We should not shrink that obligation.”
Louisiana has carried out just one execution in the last 20 years. In January 2010, Gerald Bordelon was executed after he waived his appeals.
Currently, a shortage of lethal injection drugs has prevented the scheduling of any executions."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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