30 March 2022 :
(HB 68) - House Committee greenlights bill that would authorize the death penalty for parents who kill their children. The House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice advanced a bill Thursday that would allow parents who are convicted of killing their minor children to receive the death penalty.
House Bill 68, authored by Rep. Barbara Carpenter, D-Baton Rouge, would add minor children of the offender to the list of victims of the crime of first-degree murder.
Current law includes all minors under the age of 12 on the list of victims for whom killers can receive the death penalty.
Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, asked why the Legislature would add ages 12-18 only in cases where the victim is the child of the offender.
Remy Starns, the State Public Defender, brought up the cost of defending death penalty cases in his testimony to the committee.
“As the State Public Defender, I spend $7.7 million a year defending the death penalty,” he said, adding that $1.4 million of that is post-conviction. “The other $6.2 or $6.3 million is for trial-level appellate, almost none of which results in the death penalty,” Starns said.
