HB 394 Louisiana House · 2025 Regular Session

CRIMINAL/PROCEDURE: Provides relative to procedures in capital cases

This Louisiana bill amends capital case procedures by requiring death sentences to be carried out between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. within 60-90 days of a court-issued warrant. It specifies that inmates must have a spiritual advisor present and allows 5-7 additional witnesses at executions. The bill also updates rules for rescheduling executions after legal stays or reprieves, mandating a 30-45 day window from the reset date. These changes directly affect Louisiana death row inmates and officials managing capital punishment proceedings.

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Apr 2025

Committee Review

May 2025

House Passage

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Jun 2025

Signed into Law

Jun 2025

Introduced Apr 3, 2025 Signed Jun 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB394 Original → HB394 Act · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was enrolled as Act No. 193, adding co-sponsors and an effective date clause while removing the original digest and prefiling information. The substantive legal text regarding capital case procedures appears unchanged in this diff, with only formatting and page count adjustments noted.

TECHNICAL

Added co-sponsors (Senators Barrow and Hodges) and an effective date provision to the bill header.

Removed the original digest, abstract, and prefiling notice which are informational and not part of the law.

Changed page count references from 4 to 3 to reflect the final enrolled version.

Floor votes · Senate Jun 2, 2025 · House Apr 30, 2025

How they voted

24–11

Passed · 2 other

Total votes 37

Jun 2, 2025

D Democratic11

1 Yea 9 Nay 1

81% Nay

R Republican26

23 Yea 2 Nay 1

88% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jun 2, 2025

Upper · Passed

Read by title, passed by a vote of 26 yeas and 11 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.

upper

May 29, 2025

Committee

Read by title and referred to the Legislative Bureau.

upper

May 28, 2025

Upper · Passed

Reported favorably.

upper

Apr 30, 2025

Lower · Passed

Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 75, nays 20. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.

lower

Apr 23, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported favorably (10-0).

lower

Apr 14, 2025

Committee

Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.

lower

Apr 3, 2025

Committee

Under the rules, provisionally referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.

lower

1 primary · 2 co-sponsors