The outgoing governor of Louisiana has pardoned 56 inmates since October of this year, including dozens of convicted murderers.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has reduced the state’s grossly over-populated prisons a top priority of his final term in office.
“For as long as I can remember, Louisiana reflexively responded to an increase in crime by putting more people in prison and keeping them there longer,” Edwards told Louisiana news outlet NOLA.com this week.
“We’ve never been made safer as a result of that,” Edwards said. “There is no data to suggest that an increase in crime here was because of the reforms.”
Others released by Edwards include inmates convicted of arson, robbery, and drug dealing, according to a complete list compiled by local outlet Fox 8.
A total of 40 convicted murderers have been pardoned by Edwards in the past three months.
Additionally, released inmates were convicted of aggravated arson, possession of Schedule II, aggravated kidnapping, theft, first-degree robbery, perjury, and armed robbery.
In December alone, Edwards pardoned five inmates convicted of first-degree murder and eleven convicted of second-degree murder.
Louisiana has among the highest incarceration rates per capita in the world.
With a staggering 1,094 people per 100,000 in some form of incarceration, Edwards has made decreasing the prison population in the Bayou State a high priority.
Edwards has served as governor of Louisiana since 2016, after defeating Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter in the second round of the 2015 election for governor.
He was reelected to a second term in the 2019 election, becoming the first Democratic governor to win reelection in the state since 1975.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry was elected as Edward’s replacement after securing over 50% of the vote threshold in an October jungle primary, avoiding a run-off.