Louisiana denies clemency hearings to five death row prisoners

There was a rush to hold hearings before the anti-death penalty governor, John Bel Edwards, leaves office in January

The Louisiana state board of pardons has voted against granting clemency hearings to five Louisiana death row prisoners, effectively ending a campaign to hold hearings for 55 death row inmates before the state's anti-death penalty governor, John Bel Edwards, steps down in January.

On Friday, the four-member panel sitting in Baton Rouge denied the hearings to four people on a split vote, and by a majority to a fifth, Winthrop Earl Eaton, who was convicted in the 1985 killing of a Louisiana pastor, on the grounds that he is unlikely to be executed because he is mentally incompetent.