Louisiana likely to pay Loyola law school to handle death penalty cases
Louisiana is likely to contract with Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans to handle death penalty cases. (Canva image)
Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration plans to contract with Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans to represent people facing the death penalty as well as youth charged with first-degree murder. The school would be one of five entities getting money to handle capital punishment defense for the state.
State Public Defender Rémy Starns briefly outlined plans Wednesday during a public hearing to move a $1 million state contract for capital punishment defense from the Capital Appeals Project, a private, nonprofit law firm, to Loyola. The change is expected to take place July 1, when the state’s new budget year begins, though the agreement hasn’t been signed yet.
Madeleine Landrieu, a retired state appellate judge and the law school’s dean, said defending people against the death penalty aligns with the Catholic university’s mission. The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Jesuits, the religious order which runs Loyola, have advocated for the end of capital punishment.
“I thought it was a great fit,” Landrieu said in an interview Friday. “The Jesuits are social justice warriors.”
The work would include death sentence appeals, post-conviction proceedings and some work not related to capital punishment. Under the contract, the law school would also represent a small group of so-called “juvenile lifers,” adults who are serving life sentences without parole for crimes they committed while underage, as well as teens under age 17 charged with first-degree murder.
Loyola plans to hire the Capital Appeals Project’s lawyers who have been working on the cases to continue handling them. Landrieu said it was important to preserve the expertise of those established capital punishment defense attorneys.
The law school will also offer a new class on death penalty defense in conjunction with the state contract. Landrieu’s hope is Loyola can entice students to go into death penalty defense.
The state is obligated to pay for legal defense against capital punishment, even if it is handled by an outside group like Loyola.
“That’s a legal responsibility that lies with the state. It is not relieved of its financial obligation” by partnering with Loyola, Landrieu said.
In the next fiscal year, Starns has proposed spending $6.2 million on outside attorneys who represent defendants in capital cases, the same as last year, but some of the money will be going to different entities.
Loyola will receive $1 million, and four other groups will split the rest, according to state public defender budget documents.
Three nonprofit law firms — Capital Defense Office of Southeast Louisiana ($1.3 million) Louisiana Capital Assistance Center ($1.4 million) and Mwalimu Center for Justice ($1.3 million) – will receive the bulk of the funding. Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge will receive $1.28 million after merging with another nonprofit death penalty law firm, Baton Rouge Capital Conflict Office, in 2023.
Initially, Starns had proposed sending Loyola’s state funding through the Orleans Public Defender Office, but the new state Public Defender Oversight Board nixed that plan earlier this week. Instead, they directed Starns to contract directly with the university from the state level.
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