Clemency Efforts
Mother Jones stated "a mix of racial politics and tough-on-crime posturing blocked release for more than three decades" even though several LSP wardens said that Rideau was completely rehabilitated. Rideau remained incarcerated by the mid-1990s, while other inmates with similar sentences had been paroled. An investigation by 20/20 uncovered statements by Governor of Louisiana Edwin Edwards; Edwards said that he believed that Rideau was rehabilitated, but he said that he would not release Rideau under any circumstances. Rideau said that governors did not advocate for his release because he became "a political football" and that it would be difficult for a prisoner in that state to be released from prison."
Read more about this topic: Wilbert Rideau
Famous quotes containing the words clemency and/or efforts:
“That clemency which the world cries up for such a mighty virtue proceeds sometimes from ostentation, sometimes from laziness and neglect, very often from fear, almost always from a mixture of all these together.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“What culture lacks is the taste for anonymous, innumerable germination. Culture is smitten with counting and measuring; it feels out of place and uncomfortable with the innumerable; its efforts tend, on the contrary, to limit the numbers in all domains; it tries to count on its fingers.”
—Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)