Louisiana lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill providing parole for some people who were told they would have a chance at release after 10 years and six months of good behavior, but were threatened with life imprisonment after change. Rules in the 70s.
Most so -called “10/6 life sentences” are imprisoned for at least 50 years. Most are black. Some were wrongfully convicted, while others pleaded guilty to crimes they did not commit, choosing for 10 and a half years in prison instead of risking the death penalty in front of an all -white jury.
The Bill, introduced by State Senator Franklin Foyle (R), would only provide for probation on 10/6 life sentences to plead guilty, except for those who have gone through trial and been tried. Fewer than 20 people will be affected by the Foil Act and about 30 will be left behind, said Andrew Handley, executive director of the probation project, a non-profit organization working to free rehabilitated people who spent 20 o more years. in prison.
Foyle said in a phone conversation that he limited his account to people who pleaded guilty because he believed these people had negotiated with the state and the state could not fulfill the agreement. He admitted that some of the people tried may have been wrongly convicted. It is widely known that black defendants in Louisiana have no chance of getting a fair trial.
“We chose a solution that included 10/6 life sentences.” But we’re in favor of some of these men not dying in prison, “Handley told HuffPost.
Until 1973, life imprisonment in Louisiana was allowed to be released after 10 years and six months. “Everyone here knows. “It’s routine,” Hilton Butler, a Louisiana penitentiary assistant, told the Angolite prison newspaper in 1980. “I would say almost 99 percent of all life sentences are released,” Butler said.
This changed in 1973 after the Supreme Court temporarily abolished the death penalty. The death penalty is no longer an option, Louisiana lawmakers decided to tighten their life sentence. First, the state legislature requested a life sentence for murder of at least 20 years, which was later increased to 40 years. In 1979, lawmakers granted parole to anyone sentenced to life imprisonment.
As a result, people sentenced to life imprisonment before 1973 witnessed their 10 and a half years in prison before their normal lives. Over time, 10/6 life sentences were largely forgotten externally, but Hundley met some before he was imprisoned in a Louisiana state penitentiary, better known as Angola. There he slept in a bunk bed on top of a 10/6 life sentence named Lester Pearson, who was imprisoned in 1965, more than 16 years before Handel was born.
In 2016, Handley became the first juvenile inmate in Louisiana to be released from prison Montgomery vs. Louisiana, An important decision of the Supreme Court that reaffirmed the previous ban on mandatory life imprisonment for persons under the age of 18 who have committed crimes. Hundley decided to help Pearson and the other 10/6 lifers get the same second chance given to them.
In 2020, Louisiana elected Jason Williams, a former criminal defense attorney and city council member, district attorney for the parish of Orleans. Williams has worked on a progressive platform and has vowed to review old cases related to prosecution misconduct and unfair prejudice. Hundley told Williams’ office a 10/6 life sentence and the prosecutor promised to consider 18 cases under his jurisdiction.
As a result, some 10/6 life sentences were re -sentenced at the right time and are now free. Last year, HuffPost met them Shortly after leaving Angola. They described the joy of leaving prison where they expected death and the challenges of adapting to a world that has changed dramatically over the past 50 years.
“It’s something you can’t describe in words. “The words aren’t right,” said Luis Mitchell, who served at the time last year, speaking on the phone while traveling from Angola. “You look a lot like you deserve this opportunity and you don’t get it. So you get bitterness and happiness together. So you are almost in a realm of emotions “.
Mitchell, who is black, was accused in 1966 of raping two white women, including one who was his girlfriend at the time. A medical examination of her boyfriend “revealed no evidence of recent trauma” and the other woman did not determine that Mitchell was guilty, though police specifically asked if he was the attacker. Mitchell, who has always claimed his innocence, wants to fight the allegations, but prosecutors have warned his lawyer that if the case goes to trial, he will likely be sentenced to death.
6/10 Most of the life sentences sentenced in Orleans parish and therefore did not benefit on Williams’ appeal were left in jail. After the bill is signed, a bill passed on Thursday will allow some of them to go to a probation council that can release them. But many are still left with the bill.
Regardless of crime or innocence, a particular population is made up of seniors who have been incarcerated for decades longer than expected.
“We will continue to defend people whose original sentence should have been at home decades ago,” Hundley said. “There is no public benefit for this person to remain in custody.”
Source: Huffpost
