The Promise of Justice Initiative Marks 12 Years of No Executions with Damon Thibodeaux Memorial Death Penalty Abolition Conference
January 7, 2022 marked the 12th year without an execution in Louisiana. To commemorate the milestone, the Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI) held a conference in honor of the late activist and death row exoneree, Damon Thibodeaux. The conference was attended by activists from across the country, and included Sister Helen Prejean, notable death row spiritual activist and abolitionist, and organizers like Dale Brumfield, Executive Director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and other activists from Virginia who were active in repealing the state’s death penalty in 2021.
Louisiana’s death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Since then, the state has executed 28 people and wasted hundreds of millions of dollars and other valuable resources in the name of vengeance and eye for an eye justice.
PJI's Co-Lead Organizer and Policy Advocate, Michael Cahoon, testifying at the Commission on Justice Funding at the Capitol about the financial strain the death penalty has put on the system, January 31, 2022.
Reasons to end the death penalty now:
The death penalty is a failed policy that is racist in its origins and current practice. Black people make up 68% of people on Louisiana’s death row, but only 33% of the state’s population
Countless survivors and victims’ families have testified against the death penalty
The death penalty is a flawed process, and there is no way to guarantee that innocent people are not executed.
11 people have been exonerated from Louisiana’s death row, making it the state with the 4th highest number of exonerations in the country. 9 of the 11 people wrongfully sentenced to death were Black.
The $250 million dollars that were spent on Louisiana’s death penalty spent in 15 years (2004-2019), could have been spent on education, health care, and other social investments.
The death penalty does not deter crime any more than longer prison sentences. According to the ACLU, “States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws.”
It’s time for Louisiana to end this barbaric practice, and stop the execution of our community members. Ready to end the death penalty in Louisiana? Take the pledge at LA REPEAL today.