The most prominent pro-life Democrat in the US has used his final State of the State address to call on the legislature to ban capital punishment.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is Catholic and is barred from seeking a third term, said eliminating the death penalty would cement the state’s pro-life status.
The most prominent pro-life Democrat in the country, Edwards signed a six-week abortion ban into law last year. He is the only Democratic governor to support a law restricting abortion and Louisiana is the only Southern state with a significant Catholic population historically. Typically, “pro-life” Republicans oppose abortion but support the capital punishment and Democrats support legal abortion but consider the death penalty vicious.
In his address to the legislature, he asked them to consider “the death penalty in Louisiana in 2023 with fresh eyes and an open mind”.
Edwards first set forth the practical reasons to abolish capital punishment. “It is difficult to administer – one execution in 20 years,” Edwards said. “It is extremely expensive – tens of millions more spent prosecuting and defending capital cases, and tens of millions more spent maintaining death row over those same 20 years….It isn’t necessary for public safety.”
Then, Edwards stated the moral argument: “Our criminal justice system is far from perfect. It is wholly inconsistent with Louisiana’s pro-life values, as it quite literally promotes death.”
The Catholic Mobilising Network , which works to abolish capital punishment, tweeted that the governor’s support “could be what the state needs to end the death penalty once and for all”. According to the organisation, 23 states have enacted a statutory ban on capital punishment and another three are operating under a “governor-ordered ban”. In most states, the governor can refuse to sign a death warrant, creating an effective ban until the end of the governor’s term.
Considering the state’s claim to be “pro-life” the governor also called for pro-family policies. Reflecting on Louisiana’s status as a pro-life state, Edwards said, “We have to ask ourselves what does that mean? Do the policies we’ve enacted support the position we've taken? Do we truly support families? What does it mean if we let mothers and fathers work full time without being able to afford to feed and house their children?”
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