BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A bill to give people convicted of murder as teenagers a chance for parole after 30 years was killed in the final minutes of the regular legislative session.
The proposal became caught in the crossfire in a dispute between the House and the Senate, where it ultimately died.
As one of its final actions, the House voted 82-3 Monday to send the proposal to the Senate for consideration. But senators refused to do so after the House failed to vote on the Senate-backed state construction budget.
The parole provision came in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down automatic life sentences without possibility of parole for crimes committed by someone under the age of 18. Louisiana continues to impose such penalties.