The Louisiana Pardon Board has decided to return the clemency applications from 56 death row inmates hoping Governor Edwards would reduce their sentence to life in prison. Louisiana District Attorneys Association Director Loren Lampert says if the Pardon Board took up these petitions, they would violate their own rules.
Cut 13 (10) “…must be changed”
The rules say the Pardon Board can consider clemency petitions from death row inmates if the application was made within one year of their final appeal or if an execution date is approaching.
But the director of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project, Cecelia Kappel says what the Louisiana Pardon Board has done is unprecedented. She says the board has a history of waiving its rules so death penalty clemency applications can be heard.
Cut 14 (09) “…procedural grounds”
Director of the Louisiana Motor Transport Authority, Renee Amar strongly opposes the state department of transportation’s proposal to use tolls to fund a new I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge. The Joint Transportation Committee is scheduled to meet in the coming weeks to review and approve the two-point-one-billion-dollar project. Amar says this committee can stop the toll from being implemented…
The State Department reportedly receives 400,000 passport applications a week and says the delays are a result of the pandemic and renewed interest in international travel. US Senator Bill Cassidy says several families and individuals have been forced to forgo their travel because their passports did not arrive in time and the results are costly.
He says if you need assistance with your passport to call his office in Baton Rouge.