Appropriations panel backs bill to speed post-conviction reviews despite $4.1M fiscal note

The House Appropriations Committee on Monday voted to report House Bill 6 75 favorably, a bill Attorney General Liz Murrell and district attorneys said will impose firm deadlines on state post‑conviction relief procedures to prevent multi‑decade delays in carrying out sentences or correcting wrongful convictions.

The bill matters because advocates for victims and prosecutors said Louisiana’s current post‑conviction process has been “weaponized” to produce years — sometimes decades — of delay on death‑penalty cases, while defenders and the organizations that represent incarcerated people warned the change will require up‑front funding to staff a large caseload of active petitions.

"The system has been weaponized to create and and cause delay in the system," Attorney General Liz Murrell told the committee. She listed death‑penalty cases that have been pending for decades and said the bill aims to restore discipline and speed the process so victims and defendants reach legal finality sooner.

Supporters included Rapides Parish District Attorney Philip Terrell, who described a long‑running local capital case and urged the committee to move the bill. Christopher Walters, deputy executive counsel to the governor, said the governor’s office supports the bill and urged the panel to move it along while agency funding questions are resolved.

Defense providers and post‑conviction organizations warned of immediate costs. Rami Starnes, state public defender, and representatives of the Mualimu Center for Justice and the Loyola clinic told the committee their offices already handle dozens of capital matters and that the bill would activate many cases at once. Those groups said they may need temporary additional staff to meet the new deadlines.

The bill’s fiscal note was revised during the hearing and at one point was reported as roughly $4.1 million in additional funding to accelerate work on a set of older capital cases. Murrell and some prosecutors argued the figure represents short‑term costs that will produce long‑term savings by reducing repeated litigation and time on death row. Public defenders and contracted post‑conviction counsel said much of the work and investigation is already ongoing and that the state is already spending millions on these contracts annually.

After questions from the committee about budget mechanics and whether existing public defender funding could absorb the initial workload, the committee voted to report the bill favorable. Chair members noted the bill will be moved forward subject to appropriations and further budgetary review.

What happens next: The bill was reported favorable from appropriations and will advance to the full House and, ultimately, the budgeting committees for consideration of the updated fiscal estimates and possible appropriation language.