Legislative Report

Three criminal justice reform bills slated for floor votes on Thursday House to consider Rep. Terry Landry’s HB615. Senate to consider bills to kill death penalty and to reform of habitual offender law.

by Mike Stagg

House to consider Rep. Terry Landry's HB615. Senate to consider bills to kill death penalty and to reform of habitual offender law.

Landry
Photo by Robin May

When the Louisiana Senate convenes this morning, it is slated to debate a bill that would abolish the death penalty in state.

Baton Rouge Sen. Dan Claitor's SB142 won approval from the Senate Judiciary C Committee on Wednesday and is set for consideration by the full Senate today, according to the Senate Digest. Rep. Terry Landry, whose House District 96 includes parts of Lafayette, St. Martin and Iberia parishes, co-authored the bill with Claitor. Both legislators served as members of the Justice Reinvestment Task Force, although the bill is not part of the task force's official package of bills for this session.

If the bill becomes law, capital punishment would no longer be an option in Louisiana. Those charged with crimes that now carry the death penalty as an option would now face the prospect of life imprisonment without benefit of pardon or parole under the Claitor/Landry bill.

Information compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center shows that death penalty prosecutions have been declining in the state primarily due to the expense of the appeals process that is mandatory in any death penalty conviction. Millions of dollars are spent annually in Louisiana on appeals related to death penalty cases, nearly all of that coming from the jurisdiction in which the sentence was set. Louisiana has carried out 28 executions since 1983, according to the center. During that time, 11 innocent people have been released from death row and two have been granted clemency.

If the bill wins Senate approval today, it must still make its way through the House. If it becomes law, the death penalty would be removed as an option for prosecutors and the courts for any crime committed after August 1 of this year.

The Senate is also scheduled to consider Claitor's SB146 which would change the state's habitual offender law as it applies to those convicted of non-violent crimes. The bill would set a five-year window during which convictions would count toward a person being declared a habitual offender. The current window is ten years.

The would not apply to those convicted of crimes of violence or sex crimes.

The House is scheduled to debate Landry's HB615 when it convenes today at 1 p.m. The bill would allow the state parole board to order an offender scheduled to be released to take additional rehabilitation classes between the time their parole is granted and their actual release. The bill would allow the parole board to add up to three months additional time to hold the inmate while that training is provided. The bill was amended in the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee to apply only to those convicted of non-violent crimes.

Both SB146 and HB615 are part of the Justice Reinvestment Task Force legislative agenda.