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Clemencies to Convicted Murderers from Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana since 1961 The following list graphically illustrates how unfairly Wilbert Rideau has been treated by documenting how much time other convicted murderers from Calcasieu Parish have served. With more than 40 years behind bars, Mr. Rideau has served more time in prison than any offender in the history of Calcasieu Parish. Indeed, every other convicted murderer from Calcasieu Parish who went to Angola during the 1960s was released from prison over 20 years ago! All crimes for the offenders listed below are murder and all sentences are life imprisonment unless otherwise noted. In Louisiana, there were no "first degree" or "second degree" murder designations before 1974. All murder was capital murder and the statutory penalty for a guilty verdict was death. It lay within the jury's discretion to return a verdict of "guilty without capital punishment," in which case the punishment was life imprisonment. In Louisiana, a convict is eligible for parole upon serving one-third of his commuted sentence and can discharge his sentence completely, with no parole supervision, after serving one-half the sentence. Lifers are not eligible for parole. The pardon board recommends commutations of sentences and is responsible for keeping records pertaining to those granted by the governor. Those records are kept in files ordered chronologically according to the date of the commutation. Official copies of commutations and pardons are kept in the Secretary of State's office or archives. The following list is current through March 2001. In reviewing the list, it is important to keep in mind that no clemencies have been granted to convicted murderers since the current governor, Murphy "Mike" Foster, took office in January 1996. He is the first governor in the recorded history of the state to grant no sentence commutations to murderers. The earliest extant clemency records archived in the Secretary of State's office begin with the current governor's grandfather, also named Murphy Foster, who governed Louisiana from 1892 to 1900. The elder Foster granted about 400 clemencies during his two terms, nearly 100 of them to convicted murderers sentenced either to Death or to Life.
Abbreviation ts = sentence commuted to time served with no parole
requirement CLEMENCIES TO CONVICTED CALCASIEU MURDERERS: 1961-1995*
NOTES: Jesse Reyon: crime was black on white. Reyon is the only black man ever convicted of murdering a white person in Calcasieu Parish ever to be released from any institution. He was the longest-confined offender in Louisiana history. John T. Miller: first white-on-black murder conviction in the history of Calcasieu Parish. Miller was a 4th felony offender. His clemency file shows no opposition by the district attorney's office. Cleve Thibodeaux: John T. Miller's partner, Thibodeaux was a 2nd felony offender. His clemency file shows no opposition by the district attorney's office. Elrick Manuel: a 3rd felony offender from a prominent political family. Urging clemency for him were the district attorney of Calcasieu Parish, a former governor, the sheriff, and trial judge. Sonny Davenport: Glenn Richardson's partner in a white-on-black murder. Glenn Richardson: first white man sentenced to death for the murder of a black person in Calcasieu Parish. His family purchased a pardon for him, which was reported in the Baton Rouge Advocate. Dwayne Coleman: crime was black-on-white. Has been unable to make parole. Helen Fisher: convicted of two murders. Jimmy McCauley: convicted of two murders. Stanislaus Roberts: crime was black-on-white. Has been unable to make parole.
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