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M o n d ay, M a r c h 17, 2025
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How La. changed on death penalty
Shifting politics led to restart of executions, nitrogen gas option BY SAM KARLIN
present a controversial bill. Then-Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office had asked MusOn a busy day at the State Capitol carello, R-Hammond, to sponsor in 2019, a freshman legislator was legislation to blanket informaabout to run into a buzz saw. tion in secrecy about companies State Rep. Nicholas Muscarello providing execution drugs to the took a seat at a committee table to state. It was part of a bid to end a
Staff writer
Southern death sparks painful talks
decadelong pause in executions in Louisiana. A lawyer from Landry’s office joined Muscarello as they presented the bill to the Senate Judiciary B Committee. The panel had a Democratic majority picked by former Senate President John Alario to act as a
backstop for John Bel Edwards, who was governor at the time. They swiftly killed the legislation. Edwards was in the middle of a tightly-contested bid for reelection. He would not come out publicly against the death penalty until years later, on his way out of the
Governor’s Mansion. Still, it was widely understood that the governor was uneasy about the death penalty and didn’t like the bill. “It was a whisper campaign,” Muscarello said. “Everybody knew it. It was the worst-kept secret in the Capitol.” Five years later, Landry and Mus-
ä See EXECUTIONS, page 7A
DELAYED CELEBRATION
Hazing runs deep in Greek life culture
BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer
The criminal case forming against three suspects in last month’s fraternity hazing death of Southern University junior engineering student Caleb Wilson is one of Louisiana’s first uses of its felony anti-hazing law called the Max Gruver Act. The state Legislature passed the act in 2018 and named it after the LSU Phi Delta Theta fraternity pledge, who died from alcohol poisoning in a hazing incident in 2017. It allows prosecutors to bring a felony charge in hazing incidents of coerced consumption of alcohol, serious bodily harm or death. Former Southern student Caleb McCray, 23; Kyle Thurman, 25, an Omega Psi Phi fraternity member; and Isaiah Smith, 28, a Southern graduate student titled “dean of pledges” for the university’s Omega Psi chapter, were arrested and booked by authorities on felony hazing counts tied to Wilson’s Feb. 27 death. McCray also faces a manslaughter charge. The Omega Psi pledging ritual that took place in a Baton Rouge warehouse claimed the life of the 20-year-old Kenner native, authorities said. East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said he’ll take this fraternity hazing case that’s made national headlines to a grand jury to finalize criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators. Outside the legal arena, Wilson’s tragic death started a familiar saddening conversation in Baton Rouge and across Louisiana: How can deadly fraternity hazing rituals finally be stopped — for good?
STAFF PHOTOS By SCOTT THRELKELD
ARGUS: The Krewe of Argus rolls Sunday to the theme ‘Let the Games Begin’ in Metairie. J. ‘Garry’ Jordan reigned as king and Sophie Chailland as queen over 250 riders on 25 units. The parade was rescheduled from Mardi Gras due to bad weather.
METAIRIE ROAD ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE: A rider hands out large beads Sunday to a young girl as the Metairie Road St. Patrick’s Day Parade rolls in Metairie. The annual parade followed the Krewe of Argus parade. ä See more
photos from both parades on Page 4A.
ä See HAZING, page 6A
‘We went from health care heroes to ... almost villains’
as the storied U.S. Navy the state, communities rallied — trusted,” said Dr. Kara Ward, a pushback to COVID-19 mitigation Five years after COVID hospitals Blue Angels flew over metro New sewing masks, donating meals, critical care and emergency med- efforts has widened into broader saluting front-line em- posting signs in the yards of health icine physician in New Orleans. resistance to routine immunizahit Louisiana, trust Orleans, ployees in a monthslong battle care workers overnight as shows “There is a huge mistrust now in tions. Health care workers are health care.” now navigating deepening skeptiagainst COVID-19. The Krewe of of gratitude. in vaccines is falling Red Nearly five years later, the apThe pandemic marked a turning cism amid a measles outbreak in Beans was organizing food
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
In May 2020, health care workers gathered on the rooftops of
WEATHER HIGH 71 LOW 49 PAGE 6B
drop-offs for weary staff, many of whom were sleeping in separate rooms from their families or stripping down and hosing off outside before stepping indoors. Across
preciation has faded, and so has the public’s trust. “We went from health care heroes to now … we are almost villains at this point, and not to be
point in trust in medicine, and the neighboring Texas, the nation’s state’s declining vaccine coverage first bird flu death in southwest is a measure of the long shadow Louisiana, and a steady stream of it cast and the politics that have ä See COVID, page 5A evolved in its wake. What began as
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World ................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
12TH yEAR, NO. 217