Louisiana
LSP: Baker man killed in 2-vehicle crash Wednesday morning
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BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The following news release is from Louisiana State Police.
Shortly after 9:00 a.m. on July 31, 2024, Troopers with Louisiana State Police Troop A responded to a two-vehicle crash on LA 964 just north of Groom Road in East Baton Rouge Parish. The crash ultimately claimed the life of 41-year-old Derek Guessfeld of Baker.
The preliminary investigation revealed that a 2012 Nissan Altima, driven by Guessfeld, was traveling southbound on LA 964. At the same time, a 2023 Nissan Armada was traveling northbound on LA 964. For reasons still under investigation, the Altima traveled across the centerline into the opposing lane, and collided with the Armada in a head-on manner.
Guessfeld was properly restrained, suffered serious injuries, and was transported to a local hospital where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries. The driver of the Armada was also properly restrained, sustained moderate injuries, and was transported a local hospital. This crash remains under investigation.
Troopers wish to remind motorists to always make good decisions while in a motor vehicle. Never drive impaired, fatigued, or distracted; follow all traffic laws, and always ensure every occupant is properly restrained. While not all crashes are survivable, taking simple precautions such as these can often mean the difference between life and death.
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Copyright 2024 WAFB. All rights reserved.
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Louisiana
17 states, including Louisiana, file lawsuit challenging Section 504
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Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a national law that protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their disability.
The nondiscrimination requirements of the law apply to employers and organizations that receive financial assistance from any Federal department or agency, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Now a lawsuit filed by 17 states, including Louisiana, challenges the Biden administration’s 2024 update to Section 504, which includes gender dysphoria in the definition of disability.
KATC spoke with Charlotte Cravins and her one-year-old son Landry, who has Down syndrome and is blind in one eye. We asked her how she felt about lawmakers trying to declare Section 504 unconstitutional in the lawsuit.
“I was honestly shocked by it. People like Landry and other disabled people need protections more than anyone. Prior to these protections, they were institutionalized and sent to the margins of society. Without these protections, I’m really scared that could happen again,” Cravins said.
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KATC
KATC asked Cravins about Landry’s portable oxygen machine.
“One side effect of Down syndrome is something called a floppy airway, which is caused by low muscle tone. This helps him get some oxygen support and keep his airway open,” Cravins says.
The states have now submitted a joint status report saying that they do not wish to have all of Section 504 deemed unconstitutional, but this does not ease Landry’s mother’s worries.
“I think Louisiana should withdraw from the lawsuit because you’re willing to gamble disability protections for this one part of the law you’re objecting to,” Cravins said.
According to a statement from Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill,
“I support Section 504 protections for people with disabilities. I do NOT support continuing with that particular part of the lawsuit. The case is in the process of settling, and I believe that particular claim will ultimately be dropped out of the lawsuit.”
For Cravins, lawsuit or not, she is prepared to advocate for her son and ensure his future is secure.
“I’m here to fight for Landry and people like him,” Cravins said.
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Charlotte Cravins
That statement by the Attorney General also states:
“We are actively seeking a resolution with the Trump administration that would withdraw these rules while still protecting The Americans with Disabilities Act’s traditional coverage and interpretation. The Biden administration’s rule would threaten federal funding for disabled Louisianans and take away healthcare options for those covered by Medicaid if Louisiana did not comply with its radical agenda.”
To read the lawsuit in full, click here.
Louisiana
Louisiana’s oldest death row inmate dies less than month before execution date
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A terminally ill man who spent over 30 years on death row in Louisiana for the killing of his stepson died days after a March date was scheduled for his execution by nitrogen gas.
Christopher Sepulvado, 81, died Saturday at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, “from natural causes as a result of complications arising from his pre-existing medical conditions,” according to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
He was the oldest of the 57 inmates on death row as the state weighed resuming executions after a 15-year pause, CBS affiliate WWL-TV reported.
Sepulvado was charged with the 1992 killing of his 6-year-old stepson after the boy came home from school with soiled underwear. Sepulvado was accused of hitting him on the head with a screwdriver and immersing him in scalding water. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1993.
His attorney, federal public defender Shawn Nolan, said in a statement Sunday that doctors recently determined Sepulvado was terminally ill and recommended hospice care. Nolan described his client’s “significant” physical and cognitive decline in recent years.
“Christopher Sepulvado’s death overnight in the prison infirmary is a sad comment on the state of the death penalty in Louisiana,” Nolan said. “The idea that the state was planning to strap this tiny, frail, dying old man to a chair and force him to breathe toxic gas into his failing lungs is simply barbaric.”
According to Nolan, Sepulvado had been sent to New Orleans for surgery earlier in the week but was returned to the prison Friday night. According to WWL-TV, Sepulvado’s health had sharply declined, and COPD and gangrene led to a recent leg amputation.
Louisiana officials decided to resume carrying out death sentences earlier this month after a 15 year pause driven by a lack of political interest and the inability to secure legal injection drugs. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry pushed to proceed with a new nitrogen gas execution protocol after the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature last year expanded death row execution methods to include electrocution and nitrogen gas.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that “justice should have been delivered long ago for the heinous act of brutally beating then scalding to death a defenseless six-year-old boy.”
Judi Bottoni / AP
Murrill added that Louisiana failed to deliver justice in his lifetime “but Christopher Sepulvado now faces ultimate judgment before God in the hereafter.”
Sepulvado’s execution was scheduled for March 17. Another man, Jessie Hoffman, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and slated for execution on March 18. Hoffman initially challenged Louisiana’s lethal injection protocol in 2012 on the grounds that the method was cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge on Friday reopened that lawsuit after it was dismissed in 2022 because the state had no executions planned.
The country’s first execution using nitrogen gas was carried out last year in Alabama, which has now executed four people using the method.
Louisiana
Louisiana man with execution date next month dies at Angola
A federal appellate court this week refused to throw out a ban on housing incarcerated youth at Angola. (Photo credit: Jarvis DeBerry/Louisiana Illuminator)
Christopher Sepulvado, the 81-year-old man who was facing execution next month for the 1992 murder of his stepson, died overnight at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, according to his attorney.
Shawn Nolan, who had represented Sepulvado, said was sent to a New Orleans hospital last week for a leg amputation. Doctors instead sent him back to Angola, and it is believed the infection ultimately claimed Sepulvado’s life, according to Cecelia Kappel, another attorney representing death row clients.
Doctors had previously determined Sepulvado, who had multiple serious ailments, was terminally ill and recommended hospice care at the time a judge set his execution date for March 17, according to Nolan.
“Christopher Sepulvado’s death overnight in the prison infirmary is a sad comment on the state of the death penalty in Louisiana,” Nolan said in a statement. “The idea that the State was planning to strap this tiny, frail, dying old man to a chair and force him to breathe toxic gas into his failing lungs is simply barbaric.”
Sepulvado would have the first person Louisiana put to death using nitrogen hypoxia, a method state lawmakers and Gov. Jeff Landry approved last year. The death penalty hasn’t been carried out in Louisiana since 2010, when Gerald Bordelon, 47, received a lethal injection for the kidnapping and murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Courtney LeBlanc, in Livingston Parish.
Next on Louisiana’s execution calendar is Jessie Hoffman, 46, who was sentenced to die for the 1996 rape and murder of 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliot. Authorities said Hoffman abducted Elliot in downtown New Orleans and brought her to St. Tammany Parish, where he raped and murdered her, leaving her body in a remote area near the Pearl River.
Hoffman is scheduled to die March 18, though attorneys are challenging Louisiana’s new execution method in court on behalf of 10 death row inmates. There are currently 57 people facing the death penalty in the state.
DeSoto Parish Judge Amy Burford McCartney issued a death warrant Feb. 12 for Sepulvado for the killing of 6-year-old Wesley Allen Mercer. Police said the boy was beaten and scalded to death. His mother, Yvonne Jones, was convicted of manslaughter and served more than seven years in prison.
Sepulvado was previously scheduled to die by lethal injection in 2013, but his attorney successfully argued that Louisiana officials could not provide enough information on the drugs being used to execute him. The lack of those details constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a federal judge ruled.
Multiple execution dates for Sepulvado have since been handed down and subsequently suspended as lawyers for him and other death row inmates have challenged the use of lethal injection.
Sepulvado’s motion for reconsideration was denied in November 2022, but U.S. District Judge Shelley Dick, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, agreed Friday to reopen the case.
This is a developing story.
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