Craig Franklin:

In a final move to prove his true liberal political position, outgoing Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards issued 56 pardons, of which 40 were convicted murderers. The Governor cited over-population in the state’s prisons and his belief that incarcerating people for crimes is no deterrent for criminal activity.

While it is true that Louisiana has the highest incarceration rates in the United States, a spot it has held for decades, the idea that releasing convicted murderers will have no bearing on the state’s crime rate is ludicrous.

Laws without penalties are useless. All one has to do is visit one of the many liberal cities where there are no penalties for non-violent or violent crimes to see the impact they are having upon those cities.

In many major cities in this nation, there are no arrests made for shoplifting. The result is people just walking into stores and grabbing whatever they want – not hiding their identity, not hiding items in a bag – just picking up whatever they want and casually walking out.

Some of these are the same cities that have a “no bail” policy for crimes. A common scene played out daily sees criminals arrested, booked and ushered out of the police station before the arresting officer has even completed the paperwork.

In Chicago, which has a strict no gun law, one of the highest murder rates in the nation is found. But those murderers are seldom given any type of sentence that would deter their actions. It’s the proverbial law of cause and effect. No penalties equals more crime.

Going all the way back to Biblical times, all laws had to have consequences and those consequences matched the severity of the crime. It’s the only way a society can remain peaceable.

Without having a penalty imposed for the breaking of a law, there will be no reason for abiding by the law. It is the thought of a state trooper catching you speeding and the penalty of that ticket that prevents one from speeding.

But if there were no penalties there would be no reason to obey traffic laws.

For whatever reason, Gov. Edwards has decided he is all-knowing on all the cases where he overruled the entire judicial system and released convicted murderers back into our society. Have there been cases where someone was wrongly convicted? Of course, there has. But those numbers are very low and I doubt any such justification will relieve the victims’ families of their pain.

Karah Rucker of Straight Arrow News, reports that of the 40 convicted murderers Edwards pardoned, 11 were convicted of first-degree murder.

“Nick Charles Nicholson fatally stabbed a convenience store worker 39 times. Ricky Washington fatally shot a grocery store owner during an armed robbery. Keith Elmon Messiah fatally shot a man in the face in a Popeye’s Chicken parking lot during an armed robbery,” she wrote. “Nicholson, Washington and Messiah were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Others who were pardoned faced similar sentences for comparable crimes.”

Now, the families of all of the victims not only have to live without their loved ones, but with the reality that the person who killed their loved one is a free individual facing no consequences for their actions.

Thankfully, this will be the final liberal action by Gov. Edwards. This week, Louisiana’s new governor, Jeff Landry, received his oath of office January 8 and has taken over the reins of the state. Landry and Edwards are night and day in regards to their views on crime and penalties for crimes.

During his campaign, he said, “Crime was the number one issue on the voters’ minds here in Louisiana. I don’t need any more statistics other than that. That’s real people seeing real things and having real crime affect them.”

With the conservative Governor firmly in place, along with a conservative legislative branch, we are sure to see the pendulum swing back towards stiffer penalties for crimes from murder to illegal drug distribution.

Years ago, like in the early 1990’s, I had a conversation with a liberal lawyer friend concerning this very issue. The question was, do stronger, stiffer prison sentences really make a difference regarding drug use/distribution? This friend contended they do not and offered his explanation.

After he finished, I asked him about the heroin problem in Louisiana. He seemed perplexed at first but then conceded that our state did not have a heroin problem. And he was right. For many years, Louisiana did not have a heroin problem. When I asked him why that was, he reluctantly acknowledged the fact that Louisiana, at that time, had a penalty of life in prison for distribution of heroin without the benefit of probation, suspension of sentence or parole.

The penalty was too severe for drug dealers to take a chance in dealing heroin.

Years later, after the illegal drug laws in Louisiana were greatly soften, the life in pris-on sentence for distribution of heroin was removed. Since that time, heroin has seen astronomical increases resulting in deaths throughout the state.

I, for one, hope that this new conservative movement in Louisiana includes stiffer penalties for all crimes. I’m all in favor of rehabilitation and know for a fact the only true change has to come from an experience through Jesus Christ. But penalties for crimes is the very basis of our free and safe society. They are needed not just in Louisiana, but across our nation.