Breaking: Louviere spared execution
April 21, 2015
Audrey Gibson
April 22, 2015
Changing a death sentence to life: Louviere case nears end
The planned agreement that would take admitted murderer and rapist off of death row in return for a sentence of life in prison with no parole was proposed after many weeks of consultation with his victims and their families, Terrebonne Parish officials confirmed.
Louviere was scheduled for a court appearance Tuesday afternoon, at which State District Court Judge Johnny Walker would be told of a tentative agreement between the Terrebonne Parish District Attorney’s Office and attorneys for the former deputy, who is responsible for a 1997 stand-off at what was then a branch of ArgentBank on Grand Caillou Road, during which he sexually assaulted female employees, holding them, including his estranged wife, as hostages for 25 hours.
Louviere pleaded guilty to
first-degree murder after waiving a trial, for the murder of bank teller Pamela Ann Duplantis, which occurred during the standoff.
District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. confirmed that he spoke personally with the victims, including the Duplantis family and let them have the final word on whether an agreement should move ahead.
“I told them this is your decision,” Waitz said, acknowledging that he told them that if they chose to spare Louviere’s life “it is then over and done and finished.”
For two years Louviere’s attorneys have presented witnesses they said bolstered their case in a civil action called post-conviction relief, which could result in a new trial. Even if Walker ruled against Louviere, appeals in state and federal courts, authorities confirmed, were likely.
The crux of Louviere’s quest for relief is that the insanity defense was not presented as an option by his attorneys as a trial loomed, as well as evidence that while he killed Duplantis, he did not intend to, which would have made a first-degree murder conviction less likely.
A prerequisite for any agreement, Waitz noted, was a finding by competent authority and admission by counsel that Louviere is now unquestionably sane.
Louviere
