25 February 2025 :
FEBRUARY 24, 2025 - Louisiana. Christopher Sepulvado, 81, died Feb. 23 from illness less than a month before his scheduled execution on March 17.
In the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
Sepulvado, a Hispanic, had been sentenced to death in 1993 for beating and scalding 6-year-old stepson Wesley Allen Mercer in 1992. The child's mother served 7 years for her responsibility in the act. Sepulvado was to be the first inmate to be executed after the state's decision to resume executions after a 15-year hiatus.
According to his attorney, Shawn Nolan, the state scheduled to execute Sepulvado despite doctors saying he was terminally ill and recommended hospice care for him.
Nolan said the execution of his client would serve little purpose since Sepulvado in recent years had experienced “significant physical and cognitive decline.” Nolan said his wheelchair-bound client had been taken to a hospital in New Orleans this past week for an operation to amputate his left leg, which had developed gangrene from sepsis. Nolan issued a statement on Sepulvado death:
“Christopher Sepulvado’s death overnight in the prison infirmary is a sad comment on the state of the death penalty in Louisiana. The idea that the State was planning to strap this tiny, frail, dying old man to a chair and force him to breathe toxic gas into his failing lungs is simply barbaric. Such pointless cruelty in scheduling his execution in the face of all this overlooked the hard work Chris did over his decades in prison to confront the harm he had caused, to become a better person, and to devote himself to serving God and helping others. It was my honor to fight for Chris, a man who redeemed himself. May he rest in peace.”
Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a statement on Sepulvado death:
“Justice should have been delivered long ago for the heinous act of brutally beating then scalding to death a defenseless six year old boy. The State failed to deliver it in his lifetime but Christopher Sepulvado now faces ultimate judgment before God in the hereafter.”
