PJI Statement on Passage of Bill Expanding Executions
Today, Louisiana Governor Landry will sign House Bill 6, passed during the recent legislative special session, into law. This dangerous bill creates a death penalty system in Louisiana that executes people with gas, electrocution, and secret poison chemicals. Once again our state’s policymakers have put vengeance, politics, and “tough-on-crime” rhetoric over solutions that promote healing, prevent violence, and support victims. In a rushed and intensely politicized special legislative session, Louisiana has been sent on a path that will lead to gruesome experimental and inhumane executions.
The executions bill was met with principled, bi-partisan, opposition during the special session, and this opposition will continue to grow. People around the state will continue to show up and demand proposals that really prevent violence and build safer communities. The death penalty continues to lose support in the state, and the effort to end it will continue. Hopefully in the upcoming regular legislative session, with more time and judicious consideration, the legislature considers proposals to move us away from a system that has shown time and time again that it is racist, error-ridden, costly, and cruel.
Last week, over 70 Louisiana faith leaders gathered in front of the capitol to express their opposition to the executions bill. The interfaith gathering represented the concerns of many Louisiana Catholics and other Christian denominations. There was also powerful and timely outcry expressed by leaders of Louisiana’s Jewish community, whose values and shared historical trauma drive their strong opposition to gassing people in our state.
The movement to build a safer Louisiana without the death penalty will continue after the ink of the Governor’s signature dries on HB 6 today. After today, the effort will take on an even greater urgency. Louisianans will not sit by silently while a spree of gruesome executions are carried out in their name. In the state’s capitol, its courtrooms, churches, communities, and the hearts of its residents, the work will continue.
Michael Cahoon
PJI Policy Advocate and Organizer for LAREPEAL
Promise of Justice Initiative