Fifty-six state inmates, including 40 convicted murderers, are free after they were pardoned by Governor John Bel Edwards during the final few months of 2023.
Edwards issued 16 of those pardons in October, another 16 in November, and 24 in December. The crimes of the impacted convicts range from perjury and marijuana possession to armed robbery and murder in the first and second degrees.
According to published reports, 10 of the pardoned murders are from southeastern Louisiana. Keith Elmon Messiah and Jeffrey Hawkins were convicted of murders in New Orleans; Anthony Riggins, Gregory Allen Johnson and Neal Spencer, Jr., were found guilty of murders in Jefferson Parish; Venson Dean Vampran, Christopher Williams Picard, David Daniel Rushing, and Frederick Kirkpatrick were convicted for murders in St. Tammany Parish; and Danny Melvin Young was convicted for a murder that happened in Terrebonne Parish.
No word on when these men will be released from prison or if they have already been released.
