Request for clemency from death row inmate convicted of killing the mother of BR football legend was turned down.
BATON ROUGE: They denied a death row inmate the opportunity to avoid execution for the murder of Betty Smothers, a BRPD officer and mother of six, including local football legend Warrick Dunn.
On Monday, the Louisiana Board of Pardons denied Henri Broadway’s request for clemency, as the WBRZ Investigative Unit found out.
Warrick Dunn, the son of Smothers, informed the board during the hearing about the lasting effects of his mother’s passing.
Dunn remarked, “People sacrifice their lives, and that is frustrating.” “We granted someone clemency and removed them from death row. Any person who believes they can go around shooting people and kill them in this country will be imprisoned for life and only be able to eat three meals a day.”
Smothers, a corporal in the BRPD, lost his life in the 1993 ambush attack. A second man who was also involved in the murder was previously given a life sentence.
It coincides with an effort to free the more than fifty prisoners currently serving death sentences in Louisiana. All of those prisoners wrote letters to Governor John Bel Edwards earlier this year after the latter made it known that he was against the death penalty.
Dunn declared, “I do not want innocent people to perish or lose their lives.” “That is everything to me. But do not in this instance. Do not let my family and I go through this for years. I had to take care of my brothers and sisters and become a father at the age of eighteen.”
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It has not succeeded in getting any clemency requests granted, despite strong opposition from state prosecutors in spite of support from some.
There are still five individuals who can have administrative hearings to find out if they qualify for a clemency hearing. Todd Wessinger, one of the five, is from Baton Rouge.
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