Capital punishment in Louisiana

History

After Louisiana became a state, initially all executions were carried out locally by hanging. In 1910, the state government centralized hangings at the state penitentiary in Baton Rouge, but decentralized back to parish prisons in 1918. In 1941, the official method of execution was changed to electrocution, with the electric chair being transported to parish prisons to continue local executions until 1957, when an official execution chamber was created at the current state penitentiary. Electrocution was replaced by lethal injection in 1991.

Following an execution in 2002, there was an eight-year hiatus. Then there was a single execution in 2010, followed by a 15-year-hiatus.

Legal process

When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury.

In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial).

The governor may commute death sentences with advice and consent of the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Parole. The governor doesn't need such consent for issuing a mere stay of execution.

The male death row is at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish. The female death row is at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel in Iberville Parish. Executions in Louisiana are currently performed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

The method of execution is selected at the discretion of the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections among lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution.

Capital crimes

First degree murder is punishable by death when it involves any of the following aggravating factors:

1. The offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated or first degree rape, forcible or second degree rape, aggravated kidnapping, second degree kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated arson, aggravated escape, assault by drive-by shooting, armed robbery, first degree robbery, second degree robbery, simple robbery, cruelty to juveniles, second degree cruelty to juveniles, or terrorism.
2. The victim was a fireman or peace officer engaged in his lawful duties.
3. The offender has been previously convicted of an unrelated murder, aggravated or first degree rape, aggravated burglary, aggravated arson, aggravated escape, armed robbery, or aggravated kidnapping.
4. The offender knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person.
5. The offender offered or has been offered or has given or received anything of value for the commission of the offense.
6. The offender at the time of the commission of the offense was imprisoned after sentence for the commission of an unrelated forcible felony.
7. The offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner.
8. The victim was a witness in a prosecution against the defendant, gave material assistance to the state in any investigation or prosecution of the defendant, or was an eye witness to a crime alleged to have been committed by the defendant or possessed other material evidence against the defendant.
9. The victim was a correctional officer or any employee of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections who, in the normal course of his employment was required to come in close contact with persons incarcerated in a state prison facility, and the victim was engaged in his lawful duties at the time of the offense.
10. The victim was under the age of 12 years or 65 years of age or older.
11. The offender was engaged in the distribution, exchange, sale, or purchase, or any attempt thereof, of a controlled dangerous substance.
12. The offender was engaged in ritualistic acts.
13. The offender has knowingly killed two or more persons in a series of separate incidents.

Treason is also a capital crime in Louisiana. The state formerly also allowed execution for the aggravated rape of a victim under the age of 12. The Supreme Court, however, ruled it unconstitutional on June 25, 2008 in Kennedy v. Louisiana, saying "there is a distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the one hand and nonhomicide crimes against individual persons".

Notable cases

On August 29, 2009—the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—a jury in Orleans Parish sentenced Michael Anderson to death on each of five counts of first degree murder for his execution style shooting of five teenagers on June 17, 2006. The quintuple slaying, which occurred as the nation watched New Orleans begin to rebuild in the aftermath of the storm, drew national attention to the violent crime problems plaguing the city and prompted then-Governor Kathleen Blanco to call in the Louisiana National Guard to help the New Orleans Police Department patrol the streets of the city. The sentence was especially significant as it marked the first time in twelve years that an Orleans Parish jury had sent a person to the state's death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. The sentence was later commuted to life and then reduced still further after Anderson's cooperation with federal prosecutors.

The prosecution of Rodricus Crawford for the murder of his one-year-old son in 2013 brought national attention to Caddo Parish and its controversial Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Dale Cox, responsible for one-third of the entire state of Louisiana's death sentences since he began prosecuting capital cases and a strong proponent of the death penalty. Crawford was later exonerated.

On March 18, 2025, Jessie Hoffman Jr., a former parking lot valet who was found guilty of raping and murdering 28-year-old advertising executive Molly Elliott back in 1996, was executed by nitrogen hypoxia, making him the first prisoner in Louisiana to be executed by this method, as well as the first person executed in Louisiana after a 15-year moratorium on executions since 2010.

References

References

1. Deslatte, Melinda. (February 3, 2020). "Louisiana executions stall for a decade amid legal quandary". [[ABC News (United States).
2. Finn, James. (March 5, 2024). "Jeff Landry signs bills to expand Louisiana death penalty, eliminate parole". [[The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate]].
3. Friedmann, Meghan. (2025-02-10). "After 15 years without executions, Louisiana ready to resume them using gas, Jeff Landry says".
4. Turner-Neal, Chris. (2019-12-01). "The Walls".
5. Court, Louisiana Supreme. (1919). "Louisiana Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana". West.
6. Thompson, Bruce E. R.. (2009-06-25). "Capital Punishment". Greenhaven Publishing LLC.
7. Brown, Dr Alan N.. (2025-01-07). "Louisiana Scoundrels: Killers, Cultists & the Utterly Dissolute". Arcadia Publishing.
8. (2001). "Death Watch: A Death Penalty Anthology". Prentice Hall.
9. (July 25, 1991). "Inmates refuse to build death gurney". [[Lodi News-Sentinel]].
10. "Louisiana Reaches Ten Years Without an Execution".
11. "Art. 905.8. Imposition of sentence". legis.la.gov.
12. "§5. Governor; Powers and Duties". legis.la.gov.
13. "Louisiana profile".
14. "Classification–Where Inmates Serve Their Time." ''[http://www.corrections.state.la.us/Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Time_in_Prison.pdf Inside the System: How Inmates Live and Work]{{dead link. (July 2017)
15. The Advocate]]''. January 6, 2010. Retrieved on August 24, 2010. "Laborde said Bordelon has been moved from Angola's new Death Row facility to a cell at nearby Camp F, where the execution chamber is located"
16. "§15:569 Place for execution of death sentence; manner of execution". law.justia.com.
17. Finn, James. (March 5, 2024). "Jeff Landry signs bills to expand Louisiana death penalty, eliminate parole". [[The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate]].
18. Louisiana Code Art. 905.4
19. Greenhouse, Linda. "Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape". The NY Times.
20. "Archived copy".
21. Simerman, John. (21 July 2018). "Shrouded in secrecy, New Orleans man in 'Central City massacre' has major sentence reduced".
22. (March 18, 2025). "Louisiana Resumes Capital Punishment With First Nitrogen Execution". [[The New York Times]].