DEATH PENALTY — Legislation to abolish the death penalty in Louisiana was voted down 5-1 in a state Senate committee. Sen. Katrina Jackson from Monroe, a Democrat, sponsored the bill, which was rejected Tuesday by the Republican-dominated Senate Judiciary “C” Committee. Jackson argued that the state shouldn't have the power to take a life. And she said there is no way of knowing how many innocent people have been executed, noting what she called “an alarming rate” of criminal convictions being overturned.
“The fact is that we convict people, innocent people who are later exonerated 30, 40 years later. We’ve seen it all over Louisiana,” Jackson said. “The one thing that we cannot give back to a person after when they’ve been convicted innocently is their life.”
Death penalty proponents said execution is appropriate for some heinous crimes. As of now, there are 62 inmates awaiting execution on Death Row at Louisiana’s State Penitentiary at Angola.
