| Last week, a federal district court in Louisiana refused to grant a preliminary injunction in a case brought by death row inmates alleging violations of due process and equal protection after the State Board of Pardons and Paroles decided not to hold hearings on their requests for clemency. The court declined to remedy stunning defects in the board’s handling of those requests or to address injustices in the state’s death penalty system. |
| The court’s opinion is a reminder of the limited legal protections that govern the clemency process in this country and a striking example of what Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun once called “sterile formalism.” Indeed in some places it reads like a short story by Franz Kafka. |
| Before looking more closely at the opinion, let’s recall what happened in the run-up to last week’s decision. |
| The story began last April when Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards used his annual State of the State Speech to call on the state legislature to abolish the death penalty. |
| Citing his religious and pro-life commitments he said, “for the first time I am calling on the legislature to end the death penalty in Louisiana. I am asking that you look at the death penalty in Louisiana in 2023… |
