LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: May 26, 2023

By: Allison Allsop, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — The House voted 48-38 to kill a bill Thursday that would have created an avenue of hope for prisoners who were convicted by non-unanimous juries before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the practice.

House Bill 588 would have created a special committee for providing parole for up to roughly 1,500 people who had been convicted by non-unanimous juries before the court ruling in 2020.

The term non-unanimous describes juries that were split in their decisions. Prior to the court ruling, people could be convicted of felonies, including murder, with a 10-2 vote. 

The author of the bill, Rep. Randal Gaines, D-LaPlace, spoke emotionally on the need for the bill. Residents of Louisiana voted to end convictions with non-unanimous juries in 2018, but the wording of the amendment was proactive, not reactive.

A Supreme Court case, Ramos v. Louisiana, confirmed in 2020 that non-unanimous juries were unconstitutional. However, the court determined that this decision would not apply to previous cases.

Read more at WWL-TV

Published: May 26, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The mother of LSU student Madison Brooks, who died in January, pleaded with a House committee Thursday to pass a bill to hold bars responsible for serving people under 21.

But, despite her emotional testimony, members of the House Judiciary Committee shot down the bill in a tied 6-6 vote, expressing concerns that insurance rates would spike for bars and that sophisticated fake IDs would leave good-faith bartenders open to legal action.

“I think this is a horrible bill,” said Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, who was supported by two other Republicans and three Democrats from New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

He said the bill would effectively protect people breaking the law by drinking under 21 by placing the legal responsibility on bar owners, thus making them more vulnerable to lawsuits.

“If you don’t like this, for goodness’ sake, show me what you like, because we’ve got to do something,” Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, the bill’s author, said in response.

Police say Brooks, 19, was raped by two men after leaving Reggie’s Bar in the Tigerland Bar district near LSU. Then, police say, she was left by the side of the road, where she was struck by a vehicle and left with fatal injuries.

Read more at BRProud

Published: May 25, 2023

By: Eliza Stanley, LSU Manship School News Service

Crime is the top concern for Louisiana residents for the first time in 20 years, according to an LSU survey released Tuesday.

The Louisiana Survey, conducted by LSU’s Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, shows that crime is the primary concern for about one-fifth of Louisiana residents, with 80% of those surveyed saying crime has increased over the last few years.

Since 2004, the annual survey has asked participants to name the single most important issue they would like the state government to prioritize. For the first time in the survey’s history, crime ranked first on the list.

Nineteen percent of the people interviewed said crime is the state’s most important issue. In most years, only about six to 10% of the respondents have named crime as their top concern.

Four out of five Louisiana residents also said that crime has increased in recent years. This view is common across genders, ages, racial and ethnic identities, education levels, household incomes and political parties.

Read more at Louisiana Illuminator

Published: May 24, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A House committee on Wednesday rejected a bill, 11-4, to abolish the death penalty.

Rep. Kyle M. Green, Jr., D-Marrero, presented House Bill 228 to the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice, citing the “racial bend” toward African Americans, the financial benefits to the state and the risk of wrongful conviction in his arguments for abolishing the death penalty.

“It is my personal belief that the death penalty is a barbaric practice that has no place in a modern, civilized society,” Green said. “It is a punishment that is irreversible, final and often applied unfairly.”

Green said the death penalty has been shown to be racially biased because people of color are more likely to be sentenced to death than white people. He said Louisiana has the highest rate of per capita death sentences in the U.S. and that minorities make up a disproportionate number of those sentences.

Read more at American Press

Published: May 24, 2023

By: Allison Allsop, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—Republican committee chairman Fred Mills joined Democrats on Wednesday to kill a bill that would have ended gender-affirming care for minors.

House Bill 648 failed to make it out of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee after a 5-4 vote to defer the bill.

Mills, R-New Iberia and the committee’s chairman, joined four Democrats in voting to defer the bill. Mills is a pharmacist and is in his last term of office.

In a final statement before issuing his vote, Mills said, “I guess I’ve always, in my heart of hearts, have believed that a decision should be made by a patient and a physician. I believe in the physicians of Louisiana.”

The bill, authored by Rep. Gabe Firment, R- Pollock, would have prohibited doctors from performing medical procedures or prescribing medication that alters the appearance of individuals for the purpose of gender dysphoria on individuals under the age of 18.

Read more at WBRZ

Published: May 24, 2023

By: Allison Allsop, LSU Manship News Service

The House passed a bill 78-22 Tuesday that would prohibit certain foreign adversaries or people connected to them from acquiring immovable property in Louisiana.

House Bill 537, authored by Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, caused a stir at a recent committee hearing with many people protesting that it would allow landlords and home sellers to deny access to immigrants from countries deemed adversaries.

The bill lists China, Hong Kong, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela under the leadership of President Nicholas Maduro as adversaries.

The bill was amended several times both by the committee and on the House floor to address the concerns.

Read more at Louisiana Illuminator

Published: May 24, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — As controversy swells in Louisiana over library content, the House Committee on Education voted 8-3 Tuesday to advance a bill that would require public libraries to limit minors’ access to sexually explicit material.

Under the bill, authored by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, libraries would have to create card systems through which parents would decide whether their child could check out explicit material. Cloud pitched her bill as protecting parental rights.

Libraries would also have to take community standards into consideration when acquiring materials for minors. Critics worry this would target LGBTQ content, which has been a major source of opposition at local library control meetings.

Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican running for governor, was at the hearing to support the bill. As libraries have become political battlegrounds in Louisiana, Landry has pushed to restrict children’s access to material.

Landry released a “Protecting Innocence” report in February that included book excerpts he described as “extremely graphic sexual content.” The books included “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson and “The Bluest Eye” by Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison.

Read more at KTBS

Published: May 23, 2023

By: Allison Allsop and Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — A House committee passed a bill Monday that would require the state to create a sexual assault collection kit tracking system.

The system would indicate the location and status of rape kits throughout the stages of the criminal justice process.

Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, presented Senate Bill 169, saying it would put Louisiana on the same level as 40 other states who have similar programs. Mizell placed a rape kit in front of her as she presented the bill.

“We are outliers, as we are in many things, but we are outliers in the way we handle rape kits and sexual assaults from that point,” Mizell said about tracking the kits.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Capitol, the Senate Finance Committee was hearing from domestic violence shelters about their lack of funding.

Read more at KATC

Published: May 22, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A House committee advanced a bill that would provide free breakfast and lunch for K-12 students who are eligible for reduced-price meals.

Rep. Kyle M. Green Jr., D-Marrero, and Stephanie Loup from the Louisiana Department of Education presented HB 282 to the House Appropriations Committee Monday.

“We have children in certain school districts whose parents meet an income threshold where they qualify for reduced (price) lunch,” Green said. “What I don’t want to have is that unfortunate situation where a child could be denied a decent meal simply because their parents weren’t able to pay.”

Currently, students who qualify for reduced-price meals pay about 70 cents a day. That adds up to about $14 per month for breakfast and lunch.

Loup said the bill would remove the copay for students who eat reduced-price school meals. It would cost the state about $860,000 per year. The money would have to be appropriated each year through the Legislature. If it receives final approvals, Green said, the bill would go into effect starting with the 2023-2024 school year.

Read more at American Press

Published: May 18, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — The Senate Committee on Education advanced several bills Thursday, including one prohibiting schools from disciplining students with physical force unless the parents give written consent for corporal punishment to be used. 

The committee also advanced bills to grant civil immunity for teachers breaking up fights, encourage Bible classes in public schools, and to require all public schools to display “In God We Trust” signs in classrooms. 

Current state law allows public school teachers, principals and administrators to use corporal punishment on students, including “hitting, paddling, striking, spanking, slapping, or any other physical force that causes pain or physical discomfort,” 

But use is up to the discretion of the school districts, and 27 of Louisiana’s 46 school systems ban corporal punishment, The Advocate reported in 2022. 

House Bill 242, advanced Thursday would prohibit the general use of corporal punishment at all schools, but it would allow parents to sign a form saying school officials could physically discipline their child.  

Read more at WWL-TV