Published: March 24, 2022
By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship News Service
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.
In her opening remarks, Carpenter brought up recent cases of Louisiana parents who had killed their children and told the committee that members of her community had asked her to address the issue.
“Parents of babies have literally killed these babies, and something needs to be said or done,” Carpenter said. “Right here in Baton Rouge, the death of a 2-year-old kid. The mom got upset because the child was playing with her eyeglasses, and she hit the baby, and the baby died. The boyfriend and the mama put the baby in a suitcase, drove it to Mississippi and buried it.”
Current law includes all minors under the age of 12 on the list of victims for whom killers can receive the death penalty.
Read more at Louisiana Illuminator
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