Louisiana’s outgoing Democratic governor has pardoned 40 convicted murderers since October, including one who was sentenced to death and another who stabbed a woman 39 times.
Governor John Bel Edwards has been on a mission to help Louisiana lose its title as the Prison Capital of the World and has signed amnesty to free 56 total inmates in five separate batches.
Edwards, whose term ends Jan. 8, 2024, campaigned to reduce the state’s prison population and is trying to see some results in his final weeks in office.
The Pelican State governor first signed his pardon on October 11 with his latest coming on December 19, while future orders could be announced after the holidays, according to KTSB.
Eleven of the 40 jailed murderers were convicted in the first degree, or those who killed a human being with the specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm and were involved in the preparation of the crime leading to the murder.
Ricky Washington, 65, was found guilty of fatally shooting a grocery store owner during an armed robbery in Shreveport in 1979, according to KTBS.
In 2017, Edwards signed 10 criminal justice bills into law, allowing hundreds of inmates to be released early from the prison system. AP
Owner Grady Haynes was behind the counter of YQ Grocery and was shot once in the back of the head by Washington who was wielding a .32 caliber handgun, according to the case summary.
Washington faced the death penalty, but the jury could not reach a unanimous decision, forcing the trial judge to sentence him to life in prison.
Another pardon involved a man who fatally stabbed a woman nearly 40 times.
Nick Charles Nicholson, who also received a pardon, was found guilty of fatally stabbing convenience store worker Kelly Ann Gramm in 1981.
Gramm was found with 39 stab wounds all over his body, and a broken knife tip lodged in his skull, the outlet reported.
Louisiana State Penitentiary — Angola Penitentiary is the largest high-security prison in the country. AP
Nicholson, 60, was arrested after police found him in his car with blood on his clothes and a cash register sitting next to him.
He also faced the death penalty but was sentenced to life in prison.
In Louisiana, suspects convicted of first-degree murder can face the death penalty if the district attorney requests it, or “shall be sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.”
The third murderer to go free following Edwards’ pardon is Frederick Kirkpatrick who was arrested for killing Steve Joseph Radoste in 1982 inside Radoste’s home in Pearl River.
During his trial, Kirkpatrick, now 66, said the killing was in self-defense after Radoste made homosexual advances toward him and his accomplice Charles Faulkner.
The two inflicted head injuries, stabbed and fatally shot Radoste, before ransacking the home and setting it on fire, according to WVUE.
Kirkpatrick was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death with the jury citing aggravating circumstances.
A study by Loyola University New Orleans College of Law found Kirkpatrick to be freed from death row by 2019
It is not known if the 56 inmates have been released or when they will be released, but the Louisiana Department of Corrections listed Nicholson as out of custody, as of December 23 at 3:26 a.m.
Edwards is term-limited from running for governor again after serving eight years and will be replaced by Jeff Landry, who most recently served as attorney general.
Landry, 52, a Republican, defeated incumbent Louisiana Department of Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson in October, garnering 51.6% of the vote.
Edwards is barred from running for governor again after serving eight years and will be replaced by Jeff Landry, who most recently served as attorney general. AP
In 2021, Louisiana leads the US with the highest per capita incarceration, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
The sheer amount of incarceration has most US states on the list before the actual countries, with the US coming in first with 664 inmates per capita and El Salvador ranked at 562.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
